Donald Trump is attracting authoritarian primary voters, and it may help him to gain the nomination.

With the first primaries of the 2016 presidential election cycle looming, many in the Republican Party are becoming increasingly concerned that billionaire Donald Trump will actually be able to gain the party’s nomination, leading the party to an electoral disaster in November. Using a new national survey of American voters, Matthew C. MacWilliams finds that these fears are well-founded. Trump’s strongman rhetoric has activated and energized American authoritarians to his candidacy providing him with a large and loyal base of supporters in the upcoming Republican contests. An inclination towards authoritarianism is a major predictor of people’s likelihood of voting for Donald Trump in a way that it is not for any of the other GOP candidates. Moreover, Trump voters are ready to suspend constitutionally guaranteed rights such as Habeas Corpus, reject the protection of minority rights, and support the abridgment of religious freedom through the closure of mosques across the US.