Ronald B. Rapoport is the John Marshall Professor of Government at William and Mary and the coauthor of Three’s a Crowd: The Dynamic of Third Parties, Ross Perot, and Republican Resurgence with Walter J. Stone. (June 2016)
Donald Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants and Muslims have been at the center of his campaign. And his pronouncements on these topics have greatly concerned many Republican leaders and elected officials who feared they would harm the party’s image and damage its electoral prospects. But how did his positions and comments play with Republican primary voters? The clear answer is that they reflected the views of likely Republican voters extremely well.
