Why they love him so #exactlywhatyoufear

Why they love him so

by digby

As the media assumes, once again, that Trump has finally gone too far, take a look at this:
PPP's new North Carolina poll finds Donald Trump at his highest level of support in the state yet. He's at 33% to 16% for Ted Cruz, 14% each for Ben Carson and Marco Rubio, 5% for Jeb Bush, 4% for Chris Christie, 3% for John Kasich, 2% each for Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul, 1% each for Lindsey Graham and Rick Santorum, and less than 1% each for Jim Gilmore and George Pataki.

When Trump led in our July North Carolina poll it was the first poll to find him leading the GOP pack anywhere in the country. Since then he's increased his support in every poll- from that 16% starting point in July he went to 24% in August, 26% in September, 31% in October, and now this 33% standing in September. Trump is also broadly popular with Republicans in the Tar Heel state- his 63/26 favorability rating puts him behind only Carson (64/23) and is improved from 52/35 on our last poll.

Trump's Islamophobia is a central feature of his appeal to his supporters:

-67% of his voters support a national database of Muslims in the United States, to only 14% opposed to it.

-62% believe his claims that thousands of Arabs cheered in New Jersey when the World Trade Center collapsed, to only 15% who don't believe that.

-51% want to see the Mosques in the country shut down, to only 16% against that.

-And only 24% of Trump supporters in the state even think Islam should be legal at all in the United States, to 44% who think it shouldn't be.

Although these ideas are certainly most commonly held by Trump supporters, they're not unique within the North Carolina GOP base:

-Overall 48% want a national database of Muslims to 33% who are opposed. Ted Cruz's (43/31) and Marco Rubio's supporters (38/36) join Trump's in their support for that idea while Carson's (34/51) are opposed.

-Overall 42% think thousands of Arabs cheered in New Jersey on 9/11 to 26% who don't think that happened. Cruz supporters (47/12) and Carson supporters narrowly (27/22) agree with Trump's that that happened while Rubio's (31/45) don't think it did.

-Overall 35% want to shut down the mosques in the United States to 33% who are opposed. Cruz supporters (41/28) again join Trump's in supporting that while Carson's (26/34) and Rubio's (29/45) are opposed.

-GOP voters as a whole (41/32) do at least think Islam should be legal in the United States. Trump's the only major candidate whose supporters are against that- Cruz's (37/30), Carson's (52/27), and Rubio's (52/16) all think Islam should be allowed.

The candidate with the most momentum in North Carolina compared to our previous poll is Ted Cruz. He's gone from a tie for 4th place at 6% in October all the way up to 2nd place at 16% now. He's also seen his favorability spike from 51/27 to 61/26. Cruz is the most frequent second choice of voters in the state at 18% to 14% for Carson, 12% for Rubio, and 11% for Trump. If Trump does ever fade Cruz is likely to be the greatest beneficiary- he's the second choice of 22% of Trump supporters to 17% for Carson and 12% for Rubio.

That's North Carolina, not South Carolina.

And Cruz is no better than Trump, don't kid yourself.

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