Is Losing Nobly a Republican Virtue?

There is a lot to chew on in the Manhattan Institute’s poll of the Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina GOP primary electorate. When it comes to the state of play in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, however, the survey only underscores how static the race has been so far.

But beyond the toplines, Manhattan Institute tested a variety of issues and dispositional affinities to which Republican voters are predisposed, and it produced some interesting results. For example, this survey is one of the first to test just how attached GOP voters are to candidates who lose but lose valiantly:

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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There is a lot to chew on in the Manhattan Institute’s poll of the Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina GOP primary electorate. When it comes to the state of play in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, however, the survey only underscores how static the race has been so far.

But beyond the toplines, Manhattan Institute tested a variety of issues and dispositional affinities to which Republican voters are predisposed, and it produced some interesting results. For example, this survey is one of the first to test just how attached GOP voters are to candidates who lose but lose valiantly:

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.