Party over purity: US voters unlikely to turn backs on troubled candidates, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

[dalton99a]

https://www.reuters.com/world/party-over-purity-us-voters-unlikely-turn-backs-troubled-candidates-reutersipsos-2026-06-09/

Party over purity: US voters unlikely to turn backs on troubled candidates, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
By Jason Lange and Nolan D. McCaskill
June 9, 2026 5:04 AM CDT

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - Few Americans would abandon their party's candidate over controversies such as Democrat Graham Platner's ​Nazi-linked tattoo in Maine or Republican Ken Paxton's fraud indictment in Texas, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, highlighting deep partisan divides that make winning paramount.

Two-thirds ‌of party-aligned respondents said they sometimes have to vote for a candidate they don't like just to stop the other party from winning power, according to the six-day poll completed on Monday.

That principle will be put to the test in a Maine primary election on Tuesday, when Democratic oyster farmer Platner hopes to become a candidate for a Senate seat seen as crucial to Democrats' hopes of winning a majority in that chamber in November.

In a ​nationwide poll, just 17% of Democrats familiar with Platner said his tattoo of a Nazi-style skull-and-crossbones would stop them from voting for him if they could vote in ​Maine's election.

The same share of Republicans nationwide said they would refrain from voting for Texas Attorney General Paxton, who was indicted a decade ago ⁠on charges of defrauding investors, if they could vote in the state's Senate election in November.





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Platner's tattoo is a joke compared to Paxton's long documented record of crime and corruption

[JustAnotherGen]

1. This tells me

Platner and Talarico are toast. If those Magapubs in ME and TX triple down on their Republican candidate - neither has a shot.

I've read that Talarico believes the win is in 'winning over' Magapubs. We'll have to see how that pans out.

[-misanthroptimist]

4. Wrong. Platner will win easily in ME

TX is more of a question, but I'm optimistic.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. I'm hoping the brouhaha

Over him goes away so we can focus on the proven statewide winners.

IE - Cooper, Ossoff, Brown, etc. etc.

Caveat - I have ZERO faith in the ME and TX electorate. I'm old enough to remember how we all got behind Sara Gideon, she was up in every poll, and then Maine did the Mainest thing ever and voted to send back rapist supporter (Justice I Love Beer) and Serena Joy lover (Justice Amy) to continue to be deeply concerned and then turn right around and be a typical little Republican.

Have they learned their lesson yet? Do they care what THEY with their votes for Collins in 2014 did to Black Americans, Latino Americans, Immigrants (Green Card, Visa, undocumented alike), women in need of life saving intervention in their pregnancies, etc. etc.

That's what I'm watching for . . . do they have ANY empathy for the people they did real damage to in 2014 and 2020 when they voted for that (word that I can only post on threads) asshole Collins?

They better stand ten toes down on business or they go in my garbage pile which includes Mississippi and Tennessee.

[-misanthroptimist]

2. Wrong. Platner will win easily

TX is more of a question, but I'm optimistic.

[Lovie777]

3. I think we will take back the senate.....

[JT45242]

5. nationwide polls of republicans and democrats do not matter...only the people in Maine and Texas

It doesn't matter if republicans in NC, SC, KY, AL, KS, etc would vote for any republican. It only matters whether the republican registered voters in Texas would rather have this criminal (Paxton) than a democrat. They may choose to leave it blank. They may choose to stay home. Hell, they can choose to vote for a libertarian and say that's just a pro-drug republican. They might even vote for Talarico.

Historically, we know that dead Republicans have won elections in Kansas (or was it Missouri) before, But that doesn't matter here.

No one on either campaign in either of these races cares about national party loyalty unless it impacts fundraising.

These are LOCAL (meaning local to them, statewide) elections.

In Maine 36% of voters are not affiliated officially with a party. That will likely determine the lection.

Yes, Paxton the criminal beat the bootlicker Cornyn in a republican primary that had only 6.6 million people show up. 8.2 million people voted in the democratic primary. 2.8 million independent/other voted in the 2026 primary in Texas.

People think the country is 50/50 by party. It is closer to 33/33 and 33 independent. And of that 33% republican only about half of them are any Republican to keep the democrats out. Given what state the price of gas and groceries, the extension of the war, and maybe even the release of more Epstein information particularly from the desert ranch -- there will be a bunch of voters who will want anything but trump supporters in November.

Do not forget that if this flesh eating maggot destroys the cattle industry again because of DOGE cuts, there will be a lot of traditional R voters in Texas who will not vote for Paxton.