Donald Trump's emergence as the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee scares more voters than it surprises , a new
NBC News weekly election tracking survey shows.
The survey released Tuesday shows that voters' reaction to Trump as the party's likely standard-bearer broke down like this:
- 47 percent say they responded with fear.
- 26 percent say their reaction was hopeful.
- 21 percent say their reaction was anger.
- 16 percent say their reaction was surprise.
Voters said, should Hillary Clinton win the Democratic presidential nomination:
- 35 percent would be afraid.
- 29 percent would be hopeful.
- 22 percent would be angry.
- 7 percent would be surprised.
In other results, the poll shows Clinton topping rival Sen. Bernie Sanders nationally by 12 percent among Democrats, leading 53 percent to 41 percent with 5 percent undecided. the poll also shows 84 percent think Clinton will ultimately be the party's standard-bearer.
In a general-election match-up against Trump, however, Sanders beats Trump 53 percent to 40 percent. Clinton beats Trump 49 percent to 44 percent.
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 1.3 percentage points among registered voters and plus or minus 2 percentage points in the Democratic sample.