Poll: Swing-state voters back climate change action, gay marriage

Swing-state voters in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia are embracing Pope Francis’s push for action on climate change and the recent Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

{mosads}More than 60 percent of voters in each state agree with the pope that the world should increase efforts to combat climate change. Behind those poll numbers is a strong partisan split, where the vast majority of Democrats back those calls while Republicans disagree by slight margins. 

On Wednesday, Francis met with a group of mayors from around the world to echo that call, which has been controversial for some conservatives politicians. 

A similar majority in the survey believes that climate change is caused by human activity.

The poll also shows that most Coloradans and Iowans back the recent Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, and a plurality of Virginians agreed with the ruling.

But the voters are mixed on whether business-owners can refuse gay people service because of religious beliefs. Between 45 and 46 percent of voters in each state think businesses should be allowed to refuse service, while between 46 and 48 percent do not.

Quinnipiac polled about 1,200 voters in each state, with an error margin of about 3 percent.