Pollster Dan Cox says Republican anger over the treatment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation will likely ease before the midterm elections.
“I think it’s going to dissipate pretty quickly,” Cox, research director at the Public Religion Research Institute, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha in an interview that aired Tuesday on “What America’s Thinking.” “We still have four weeks to go before the election, and that’s an eternity.
“What I think will happen is that righteous indignation, that righteous anger will dissipate among Republicans, but among Democrats and Democratic women, in particular, you know, suburban college-educated women, I think there’s going to be a fire lit under them and keep them animated through the midterms,” he continued.
“We’re seeing historic gender divides and preferences in 2018, so I think that is going to be the story.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week that Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which could tilt the Supreme Court to the right for decades, will energize Republican voters in the midterms.
“It’s a wake-up call to why it’s important to hold the Senate. You know the Senate’s in the personnel business,” McConnell said.
Kavanaugh faced sexual misconduct allegations from multiple women, including from Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before Congress about her accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982. Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegations and was confirmed over the objections of Democrats.
President Trump during a swearing in ceremony on Tuesday declared Kavanaugh “proven innocent” and apologized to him and his family for what he called a “campaign of personal destruction.”
A recent CNN poll found that positive views of Kavanaugh among Republicans have jumped 18 points from 62 percent in August to 80 percent, while negative views of him among Democrats have spiked 30 points from 56 percent in August to 86 percent.
— Julia Manchester
hilltv copyright