Actually they wouldn’t. Replacing a hardcore conservative with another would be expected.
But oodles of FReepers "explained" to me that Trump "had to" replace Scalia with the squishy unknown Gorsuch because the Senate would "never" confirm an unabashedly pro-life hard-core conservative Scalia-type judge (even though the Senate was solidly controlled by Republicans at the time so such a judge would be confirmed even if EVERY DemonRat Senator voted no, and George W. Bush had problem getting Alito confirmed instead of the questionably conservative Harriet Miers, back when conservatives cared about that sort of thing...)
But oodles of FReepers "explained" to me that Trump "had to" replace Scalia with the squishy unknown Gorsuch because the Senate would "never" confirm an unabashedly pro-life hard-core conservative Scalia-type judge (even though the Senate was solidly controlled by Republicans at the time so such a judge would be confirmed even if EVERY DemonRat Senator voted no, and George W. Bush had no problem getting Alito confirmed instead of the questionably conservative Harriet Miers, back when conservatives cared about that sort of thing...)