But Schafer’s company has stopped measuring Trump—they now consider him a politician, not an entertainer. Soon, others could, too. And with Trump leaping into Republican politics as an uninhibited, bomb-throwing nativist, his negative image among the broader American electorate could have significant political repercussions. That’s because, as a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows (thanks to Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies for providing added data), negative feelings toward Trump are most intense among precisely the groups that Republicans are struggling most to attract: Millennials, black and Hispanic voters, and professionals with advanced degrees…

The scary scenario for Republicans, then, is that come Thursday night, Americans will make the same category shift as the Q Scores Company—that the Fox News debate will serve, in essence, as Donald Trump’s political bar mitzvah, the moment when he becomes a “Republican” in voters’ eyes, with all the positives and negatives that implies for his party.