Kasich, Cruz loyalists list Trump as second choice, narrowing likelihood of stopping Trump

(Image credit: Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The "Stop Trump" movement could have just hit a major snag: It turns out that for John Kasich and Ted Cruz supporters, Donald Trump is an appealing second choice.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows that almost half of Kasich's supporters would flock to Trump, not Cruz, if their candidate were to drop out of the race. Likewise, over half of Cruz's supporters would go to Trump, not Kasich, if Cruz were to suspend his campaign.

The news complicates any attempt to rally around a single candidate in order to beat Trump, Politico points out— since neither Kasich nor Cruz supporters seem eager to join the other's camp. Still, among Americans overall, 54 percent of respondents said they would never vote for Trump in November; only 43 percent said the same of Hillary Clinton, 33 percent of Cruz, 27 percent of Bernie Sanders, and 14 percent of Kasich,

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Quinnipiac reached 652 Republicans between March 16 and 21; this portion of their poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percent. Overall, Quinnipiac surveyed 1,451 registered voters nationwide, with the entire poll having a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percent.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.