NBC News performed their own exit poll during the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, but there was an interesting tilt in what results they emphasized online.
For the Republicans, it was the bad news: “Wisconsin Exit Poll: 1 in 3 GOP Voters Would Abandon Party if Cruz or Trump Is Nominee.” For the Democrats, it was more neutral: “Wisconsin Exit Poll: Sanders Beats Clinton With Strong Support from Younger Voters and Men.”
Did the NBC News exit pollsters ask if Democratic voters would abandon their party if Hillary was the nominee, or if Sanders was the nominee? Try finding a result online, because I haven’t found it. This was their summary of the GOP exit poll:
Amid fierce clashes between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, one out of three Republicans voting in Wisconsin said they would abandon the party if either candidate is the ultimate nominee, according to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll.
When asked what they would do if Cruz were the GOP nominee in November, only 66 percent of Wisconsin Republicans said they'd vote for him. The remainder instead would vote for a third-party candidate (18 percent), vote for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton (6 percent) or not vote at all (5 percent).
The numbers got slightly worse for the Republican Party when voters were asked to consider Trump as the GOP nominee. Just 61 percent said they'd vote for the brash businessman, with the rest defecting to a third party (18 percent) or to Clinton (10 percent)—or simply staying home (8 percent).
But what if a voter comes to the polls and skips the presidential race, or writes someone in? It might be "not vote," but it's not "simply staying home."
Elsewhere, NBC noted Cruz won big among voters calling themselves "very conservative" in Wisconsin:
Nearly two-thirds of Wisconsin GOP voters (63 percent) calling themselves "very conservative" voted for Cruz today, preferring him handily to rivals Donald Trump (at 29 percent) and John Kasich (5 percent). About three in 10 Republicans voting today in Wisconsin considered themselves very conservative.
But there was no scoop on which candidate Democratic voters calling themselves "very liberal" chose.The Democratic assessment was bad news for Hillary, but not bad news necessarily for Democrats:
Bernie Sanders won the Wisconsin Democratic primary by taking a significant 64 percent share of the votes from men who represented nearly half of the Democratic electorate today, according to the NBC News Exit Poll.
Sanders also secured his win by maintaining significant strength with young voters, winning 82 percent of the votes cast from those under age 30 and 73 percent of all Democrats under age 45. Clinton drew majority support from those ages 45 and older (56 percent to 43 percent for Sanders).
Clinton also continues to suffer among voters who consider honesty the quality that matters most for the next Democratic nominee. These voters represented a third of the Democratic electorate in Wisconsin (33 percent) and more than eight in 10 supported Sanders. He also dominated Clinton among independents, 72 percent to 28 percent.
When asked which candidate inspires them more about the future of the country, a 59 percent majority said Sanders. [Only 38 percent said Hillary.]
