Unconditional Support for Trump’s Resistance Prior to Election Day in Public Opinion

Using survey data collected less than two weeks prior to the 2020 Presidential Election, we investigate why likely Trump voters would support Trump resisting the results of the election if he lost. We first do this using an experiment with randomized hypothetical popular vote margins to test if support for resistance is contingent upon the results of the election itself. We also directly ask respondents who said they would support resistance to explain their reasoning in an open-ended response. In doing so, we gain insight into one of the most turbulent elections in American history and examine how support for resistance existed prior to the election itself due to both misinformation about voter fraud and hyper-partisanship which made Trump voters view the electoral process itself as illegitimate.