Almost half of voters surveyed in a new Hill-HarrisX poll said the filibuster should remain in place.
Forty-three percent of registered voters in the March 12-14 survey said the Senate procedural tactic should be kept as is.
Thirty-seven percent of respondents said the filibuster should be limited and difficult to use, while another 20 percent said it should be eliminated entirely.
A plurality of Democrats, at 45 percent, said the filibuster should be reformed or limited so that it is more difficult to use, while 29 percent said it should be kept as is and 26 percent say it should be eliminated entirely.
A majority of Republicans, 56 percent, said it should be kept as is, while 29 percent said it should be reformed and 15 percent said it should be eliminated.
A plurality of independents, 44 percent, want to keep the filibuster as is while 36 percent said it should be reformed and 20 percent said to abolish it.
“I think this latest Hill poll really sort of shows how the filibuster has become a more controversial topic and it highlights how there isn’t really a majority support for keeping it as is,” Chris Jackson, pollster and senior Vice President at Ipsos, told Hill.TV.
A September 2019 Hill-HarrisX survey found a plurality of voters said lawmakers should put more limits on the use of the Senate’s legislative filibuster.
According to a Jan. 28-Feb. 1 2021 Hill-HarrisX poll, 52 percent of voters said the filibuster is an important tool, while 48 percent said it is primarily used to promote gridlock and prevent the Senate from taking action.
Calls have mounted from Democratic lawmakers to reform or eliminate the 60-vote legislative filibuster since President Biden took office, though the White House has not yet signaled outright support for reform or elimination of the tactic.
The No. 2 Democratic lawmaker on Capitol Hill, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), argued this week that the filibuster undermines democracy.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a warning to Democrats not to nix the legislative filibuster.
The most recent Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among 2,818 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 1.85 percentage points.
—Gabriela Schulte
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