Inside the Beltway: Donald Trump voters would follow him to third party

By Jennifer Harper - The Washington Times - Monday, April 25, 2016

NEWS AND OPINION:

Nervous GOP insiders now counsel Republicans to vote Republican or else — no matter what happens, and no matter who the nominee is. Just look for the big “R” in the poll booth and touch the screen, pull the lever or mark the ballot the insiders counsel, followed by a stern speech about what would happen to America if Hillary Clinton or Sen. Bernard Sanders became president. It looks like some Republicans are happy to comply: 60 percent of Republican primary and caucus voters plan to support the eventual Republican nominee “even if their candidate is not chosen,” according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll released Monday. The remaining GOP voters say they will vote Democratic, stay home, or “seriously consider a third party candidate,” the poll found.

But forget about the Donald Trump fans. The pollster had a few questions just for them in particular.

“A majority of Trump supporters said they would vote for the businessman if he were to lose the nomination and run as a third-party candidate,” the poll notes. “When Trump primary and caucus voters were asked what they would do if Donald Trump lost the GOP nomination and opted to run as a third-party candidate, they indicated by a 2-1 margin (56 percent to 28 percent) that they would vote for an independent Trump in November.”

Among all Republican voters, Mr. Trump led with 45 percent, while Sen. Ted Cruz drew 29 percent, and Gov. John Kasich 17 percent, with 8 percent still undecided.

And about those Democratic voters: The survey found 69 percent will support the Democratic nominee regardless of whether their preferred candidate is chosen. It is close: Mrs. Clinton has 50 percent of the vote, Mr. Sanders 45 percent. Another 57 percent say the loser should agree to be a vice presidential candidate, while 54 percent say Mr. Sanders should continue his campaign all the way to the party’s national convention and not drop out. Democrats, incidentally, were not asked about third party options.

CYBER ADVICE: ’LEAD FROM THE FRONT’

On the radar in a cyber-heavy town: the “Public Sector Innovation Summit” on Tuesday, staged at a classy hotel only blocks from the Pentagon and organized by VMware, a California-based company centered on cloud technology infrastructure, virtualization software and business mobility. That may seem like a foreign language to some, but all three are critical to every federal agency, not to mention the military and intelligence communities. VMware is a heavy hitter in the field, with revenue of $1.59 billion in the first quarter of 2016 alone. Situated in where-else-but Palo Alto, the organization was named among the nation’s top companies by Fortune magazine.

All that aside, the stage will boast 50 thought-leader types from federal agencies and the industry itself to discuss cloud security, disaster recovery and other hair-raising matters. Tony Scott — whose title is actually “Chief Information Officer of the United States — is among the speakers for the event, as is Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware. He offers a little plainspoken advice.

“Every government agency now has to navigate a set of challenges that are complex and fundamentally technology-driven, from cybersecurity to mobile access to how you harness the cloud,” Mr. Gelsinger tells Inside the Beltway. “If you’re a technology leader working in the public sector today, it’s imperative that you ’lead from the front’ to address these complexities head-on — gone are the days when you could stay in the background and just focus on the technology in the data center.”

PARTY ON ELECTION NIGHT?

Should the presidential candidates hunker down and wait silently for primary results on Tuesday — or stage a party as results roll in from Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island? That depends on the candidate.

Among Republicans, Donald Trump will be in the 68-story Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City for an election night gathering somewhere around 9 p.m. Gov. John Kasich has canceled his scheduled “Election Night Watch Party” in Indianapolis, Indiana. Sen. Ted Cruz will be campaigning in Nebraska with his wife Heidi and has yet to reveal his evening plans.

Meanwhile, among Democrats: Hillary Clinton will spend election night at a major convention center in Philadelphia for what appears to be a public celebration. Sen. Bernard Sanders will host a “Future to Believe In” rally in Huntington, West Virginia. But no mention of a party.

Barring any surprise dropouts, it’s back to the campaign trail for everybody for the rest of the week.

PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATION

Rest assured. While hysteria continues on the campaign trail, there is a group of conservative lawmakers willing to sit down and address the issues for a change. “Conversations with Conservatives” on Wednesday features free market and liberty-minded members of Congress who face questions from journalists, with Reps. Raul Labrador, Tim Huelskamp and Jim Jordan as the three point men for the Capitol Hill event.

Also attending: Reps. Justin Amash, Dave Brat, Ken Buck, Cynthia Lummis, Gary Palmer, Scott Perry and Matt Salmon. The moderator is Rob Bluey, an investigative journalist at the Heritage Foundation; organizers encourage Twitter participation using the hashtag #CWC114. The event will be posted in its entirety on YouTube afterwards on “The Daily Signal” channel.

POLL DU JOUR

• 85 percent of Americans would describe themselves as “hardworking”; 87 percent of Republicans 84 percent of independents and 85 percent of Democrats agree.

• 62 percent overall describe themselves as “active”; 54 percent of Republicans 64 percent of independents and 62 percent of Democrats agree.

• 30 percent overall describe themselves as physically “lazy”; 37 percent of Republicans 27 percent of independents and 29 percent of Democrats agree.

• 8 percent overall say their work ethic is “lazy”; 8 percent of Republicans 9 percent of independents and 9 percent of Democrats agree.

Source: A YouGov poll of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted April 12-14.

• Idle chatter, strident proclamations to jharper@washingtontimes.com.

• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.