As worried as many Democrats are about the recent feud between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton hurting their party’s chances this fall against Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a new survey by Gallup indicates that the Republicans have far more reason to be concerned.
Sanders touched off an uproar within his party this week by saying that Clinton wasn’t “qualified” to be president, and then backing down. Trump and Cruz have been exchanging nasty and highly personal insults about their integrity, grasp of issues and even the looks of their wives.
Related: Sanders’s ‘Great Society’ Plan Could Add $15 Trillion to the Debt
However, despite the recent bitter exchanges between Sanders and Clinton in the run-up to the New York and Pennsylvania primaries later this month, rank-and-file Democrats are far more enthusiastic and positive about their candidates than Republicans are about theirs.
Seventy percent of Democrats who were interviewed March 31 to April 6 have positive views of both Democratic contenders, while only 55 percent of Republicans are positive about Trump and just 52 percent are favorably inclined toward Cruz, according to the survey.
“This results in a big gulf between how the Democratic candidates and the Republican candidates are seen by their party faithful,” according to the Gallup analysis. “If we net out the favorable and unfavorable ratings, we find Sanders with a +58, Clinton with a +44, Trump with a +15 and Cruz with a +14.”
