More than six in 10 of Donald Trump’s supporters in the US state of Texas say they would like to see their state secede if the Republican presidential nominee loses the November election to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, a new poll shows.
The Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released on Tuesday showed that 61 percent of Trump’s supporters backed secession, compared to 29 percent who favored staying in the US.
Among Clinton’s supporters, however, only 37 percent of the likely voters supported the decision, while 49 percent opposed it.
Overall, the poll found that only 26 percent of Texans would back the state’s independence, while 59 percent wanted to remain a part of the US and 15 percent were unsure.
The opponents of the decision were mostly Clinton’s supporters, 54-41 percent. Of those who favored secession, 72 percent said they will vote for Trump.
The poll also raised the alarm for the New York businessman in the Republican-dominated state. According to the survey, Trump only had a 6-point lead over the former secretary of state, 44 percent to 38 percent.
The small margin echoes a declining national support for Trump, who has brought a wave of bad publicity upon his campaign by a series of erratic comments over the past weeks.
The real estate mogul tried to reboot his campaign on Wednesday by shaking up his staff for the second time in two months.
Wednesday's shakeup amounts to a demotion for Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman, amid increasing tensions inside Trump's campaign in recent weeks.
The decision came a day after 123 current and former GOP officials wrote a letter to the Republican National Committee (RNC), urging it to cut ties with Trump.
The signatories, including Representatives Scott Rigell of Virginia and Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, urged the committee to stop providing Trump with resources before his “losing” campaign harms “Senate and House races.”