Sanders supporters could vote for Trump: Expert
Some Democratic Party supporters could end up voting for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, if he ends up battling against Hillary Clinton for the White House, one expert has told CNBC.
"Trump's an outsider but he's been very, very successful," Dominic Dyer, fellow at networking organization The British American Project and Council, told CNBC Friday.
"Yes this campaign's been based on fear and prejudice to a degree, but (Trump) has gone in right on those trade issues, the issues that really worry a lot of working class Americans about the fact that they're working harder for less today. That resonates with the Bernie Sanders campaign as well."
"If you look at the swing states – like Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania – these issues of trade and issues of Americans working harder to stand still in the last eight years really resonates with voters."
"And I have no doubt, that some of the grand swell of support that's gone to Bernie Sanders could move over to Trump and I don't think we should underestimate the impact of that," Dyer said, adding that he believed this trend was already emerging.
While it's yet to be decided whether Clinton or Sanders will become the Democrats chosen nominee, if Clinton is selected, Dyer believes it's going to be "difficult" for her to move all the Sanders supporters into her camp.
"She's part of that American political establishment that people are extremely suspicious of," said Dyer, adding that the FBI investigation into Clinton and the private email server could be potentially "quite damaging" to her campaign because of trust issues.
On Thursday, conservative leaders met privately in Washington to discuss a way of stopping the billionaire businessman Trump from obtaining the presidential nomination, according to the Associated Press.
Dyer however believes that it would be extremely difficult to stop Trump's political path.
"I think Trump's run for the presidency has gone from unthinkable to almost inevitable in the last six months and I think this is a shock-wave going through the Republican Party but also the media establishment in the United States."
Meanwhile, a fellow expert on the matter provided an alternate case for Trump's political future.
In order to obtain the Republican nomination, Trump or a fellow candidate needs to secure at least 1,237 delegates. While analysts remain skeptical on whether Trump could achieve this majority, one expert believes it's possible Trump could go independent if he's denied the nomination on the first round at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer.
"If Donald Trump gets to the convention and is denied the nomination on the first round of balloting it's entirely possible – knowing Donald Trump – that he could take his hair, his ego, his billions of dollars and stage a walkout," Dr. James Boys, political historian, author and U.S. policy expert, told CNBC Friday.
"(Trump could) say 'I signed up to play by the rules, I'm the most popular candidate, I've come up short just slightly but everybody knows it should be me. I'm firing the Republican Party and I'm going to run on my own'. If that happens he splits the vote on the right," Boys said.
If Trump decided to run as an independent candidate, Boys estimated Trump could seize at least 30 percent of the Republican Party voters.
"If you split the vote on the right like that, you guarantee a Democratic Party victory, which is exactly what happened in 1992, when Bill Clinton won of course."
—By CNBC's Alexandra Gibbs, follow her @AlexGibbsy and @CNBCi