Poll: 68 percent of Trump supporters would vote for him as an independent

A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll finds that a majority of Donald Trump's supporters would vote for him if he left the Republican party to run as an independent.

The nationwide survey polled 1,000 likely voters last week, before Trump announced he supported a "complete and total shutdown" of Muslims entering the United States. Out of his supporters, 68 percent said they would vote for him as an independent, 18 percent said they would not, and the rest were undecided. Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton's lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has widened to nearly 2-to-1, at 56 percent to 29 percent.

Among all voters, Trump was viewed favorably by 30 percent and unfavorably by 60 percent, while 39 percent had a favorable view of Clinton and 54 percent had an unfavorable view. Out of those who had an unfavorable view of both, 45 percent said they disliked Clinton more, and 42 percent disliked Trump more. "If each is their party's respective nominees, the poll tells us that the majority of the country does not see either candidate as acceptable, which means that the race for president may come down to which candidate voters view as the lesser of two evils," says David Paleologos, director of Suffolk's Political Research Center. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.

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