Trump Leads Landline-Only Poll Of Illinois Republicans

By Mae Rice in News on Dec 21, 2015 4:45PM

Donald Trump leads all the other Republican candidates in Illinois, according to a new poll shared with Sun-Times. Trump polls at 30 percent here, with Marco Rubio—the candidate second from the top—polling at 15.

If you are blessed enough to be unfamiliar with Trump, the billionaire presidential candidate is best known for owning real estate, firing almost every contestant on The Apprentice, and, more recently, sharing his dangerous xenophobia with the world.

The poll in question, conducted by GOP pollster Joe Caccitolo of Compass Consulting, was conducted last Wednesday, the day after the fifth Republican debate.

The automated poll called only landlines, and reached roughly 2,100 Republican voters—half of whom were 62 or older, the Sun-Times reported, likely because young people don't really have landlines anymore.

The Sun-Times further explained the survey methodology:

In Illinois, a voter does not have to declare or register a party affiliation in advance, so a major predictive factor of who will vote in the future is the past track record.

Calls went to households screened to include the hard-core Illinois Republicans who have pulled a GOP primary ballot over the past 10 years and those who participated in previous GOP primaries most of the time.

In other words, this is a poll of a loyal, elderly base, not a representative poll of Illinois residents.

When it comes to Illinois residents more broadly, many vocally oppose Trump’s rise. Even ultra-rich Chicagoans are embarrassed to live in his namesake tower, and recently, a Facebook event has cropped up called “It’s Time To Relocate Trump Tower to The Chicago River.” It’s slated for January 29; so far, 4,000 people have RSVPed that they’re going.