In a new CNN poll released Sunday, 59 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that believing Trump won the 2020 election is “important” to being a Republican—36 percent indicated that it’s “very important” and 23 percent “somewhat important.”
Of the 40 percent who say that believing Trump won is not important to being a Republican, 15 percent indicated that it’s “not too important” and 25 percent “not important at all.”
Additionally, 61 percent of Republicans consider support for Trump to be a crucial part of what it means to be a Republican—34 percent say it’s “very important” and 27 percent “somewhat important.” Only 23 percent say supporting Trump is “not at all important” to what it means to be a Republican.
Trump’s ongoing claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” in favor of President Joe Biden has been exhaustively litigated in court and discredited. Even Trump-appointed judges and other Republican officials have rejected the false claim.
Former Attorney General William Barr, who was one of Trump’s most loyal Cabinet officials, said in December that there was “no evidence” of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election.
Around the same time, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was led by a Trump appointee, also said there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed voters, or was in any way compromised.”
Still, Trump has continued to repeat the baseless theory in most of his public appearances since leaving office and pressure allies to push for audits of the election results.
During a speech at a “Save America” rally in Ohio in June, Trump called alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election “the biggest threat of all” to America. “There is no more dire threat today than the crisis on our southern border, other than our elections,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest threat of all, is how that happened in the election. It’s a disgrace.”
The CNN poll, conducted by SSRS, sampled 2,119 adults online and via phone between August 3 and September 7. It’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.8-3 percentage points.
Newsweek reached out to the Republican National Committee for comment.