The voting bloc could play a decisive role in the November election, which is expected to be very close.
Following former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 charges in his hush money trial, a majority of independents and “double haters” — people who have a negative view of both Trump and President Joe Biden — feel the former president should drop out of the race for the presidency, a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found, which could have ripple effects for the November election.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday found that 52% of independents think Trump should stop campaigning for president in 2024, and 67% of the more narrow group of “double haters” said the same. The poll was conducted using Ipsos’ Knowledge Panel.
In an election year, the votes of independents and those who don’t identify with either candidate are highly coveted by both campaigns, and their votes could have a major impact on a 2024 presidential election that is likely to be decided narrowly, especially in key battleground states.
Overall, 72% of Republicans, 6% of Democrats and 23% of independents have a favorable view of Trump following his conviction.
Regarding Biden, after President Trump’s conviction, only 4% of Republican supporters have a favorable view of him, while 72% of Democrats and 24% of independents have a favorable view.
The poll found that 50% of Americans believe Trump was right in his decision, while 27% said he was wrong and 23% said they didn’t know.
Nearly half of Americans (49%) say Trump should end his campaign based on the verdict alone, according to the ABC News/Ipsos poll. One in six Republicans (16%) say Trump should end his campaign because of his conviction. More than three-quarters of Democrats (79%) think Trump should stop campaigning, according to the poll.
A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday explored the immediate political impact of the ruling.
The poll found that more than half of registered voters said the ruling would not affect their likelihood of voting for Trump, while about 1 in 10 Republicans said the ruling would make them significantly or somewhat less likely to vote for Trump.
Among independents, 16% say a conviction of Trump would make them more likely to vote for him, while 26% say it would make them less likely to vote for him, and 58% say a conviction would not affect their chances of voting for Trump.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 11% of Republicans said a conviction would make them less likely to vote for Trump.
methodology
This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted May 31-June 1, 2024 among a random sample of 781 U.S. adults in English and Spanish using the probability-based Ipsos Knowledge Panel®. Results have a sampling error of 3.7 percentage points across the sample, including design effects. Sampling error is not the only source of variance in the poll. Partisan divisions are 31-29-32 percent for Democrats, Republicans and Independents, respectively. See the poll’s topline results and details on methodology here.
ABC News’ Rick Klein and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
