A new poll shows that Republican voters are more aligned with Donald J. Trump than they are the GOP and its leadership in Congress.

The poll conducted by Rasmussen finds that 63 percent of voters who identify as Republicans say that Donald Trump’s views align most closely with their own. Meanwhile, only 27 percent of Republicans say that the views of the average member of the GOP caucus in Congress comes closest to their views.

The finding is vastly different when Democrat voters are surveyed on the question. Fully 72 percent of Democrat voters said they agree with the views of the average Democrat in Washington. Only 16 percent of Democrats said that Trump comes closer to their views than members of their own party in D.C.

Overall, though, 53 percent of those surveyed said they identify more closely with Republicans. Thirty-seven percent said they align with Trump on major issues, while only 16 percent said they feel the average member of the Republican caucus has views with which they identify closely. Overall, 37 percent said that the average views of Congressional Democrats align with theirs.

Of the group polled who didn’t claim to be a member of either party, 34 percent said Trump’s views were closest to theirs. Of this group, 29 percent said they aligned with Democrats and only 16 percent said they best identify with the ideas of Republicans in D.C.

The results still show that the Republican Party is struggling in general to appeal to voters, even among their own constituents. And with much more favorable ratings for a President Trump than for Congressional Republicans, it should serve as a warning that bucking Trump might hurt them more than help their cause.

The experience of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) may be instructive. A separate Rasmussen poll found that Ryan’s favorability soared after he reversed his stance against Trump. During the primary season when Ryan was vocally anti-Trump, his favorability rating sunk to 53 percent among GOP voters. But once he took up the Trump banner and accepted Trump as the party nominee, his ratings surged to 73 percent.

The survey was conducted by Rasmussen Reports and taken of 1,000 likely voters by phone and Internet on January 3-4, 2017. The margin of error is calculated as plus or minus three points.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.