As political observers shift their attention to a likely general election faceoff between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, it should be noted that, while the former secretary of state has a lot of soothing to accomplish within her party, the GOP is widely divided along demographic lines among white voters between college graduates and the non-college voters.

The racial, religious and cultural divides that Trump has exploited within the broad bloc of GOP voters could come unraveled in the coming months.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds (62%) of white non-college Republicans in 2015 viewed immigrants as “a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing and health care.” Just 26% said immigrants “strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents.”

Among white college graduate Republicans, such xenophobia was far less pronounced. Opinion was divided, with 44% saying immigrants strengthened the country while 42% said they were a burden.

GOP voters - college, non-college

For a better look at this Pew chart, click here.

In addition, half of white non-college Republicans said they would be more likely to support a candidate for the Republican nomination who wants to deport all immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, according to a Pew  survey last September. Among better-educated white Republicans, 38% said they would favor such a candidate.

It is a tribute to Trump’s hucksterism that an elitist Manhattan socialite has won over a broad swath of Republicans in rural areas and downtrodden suburbs.

When Mitt Romney tried to deflate the Trump campaign in a speech earlier today, the Michigan/Massachusetts Republican who was the great hope of the GOP just four years ago was widely denounced as a stooge of the party establishment.

Has a former presidential nominee been vilified so thoroughly by his own partisans within the space of just a few hours?

Pew reports that white Republicans with less than a college education also expressed less positive views of increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. About half said having “an increasing number of people of many different races, ethnic groups and nationalities” makes the U.S. a better place to live. Among white college-educated Republicans, 65% viewed growing racial and ethnic diversity positively.

Overall, based on political surveys in 2015, white non-Hispanics made up a large majority (80%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents; white non-Hispanics made up a smaller share (65%) of the public overall.

Among Republicans and Republican leaners, about a quarter are white college graduates. Nearly six-in-ten are whites who either have attended college but have not obtained a degree, or have not attended college.

While many of Bernie Sanders’ leftist supporters are not eager to jump on the Clinton bandwagon, it appears that the Republicans, with Trump as their nominee, may have more deep-seated divisions to overcome when November approaches.