Virginia voters split on removing Trump from office: poll

Virginia voters in a new poll are evenly split on impeachment and removing President Trump from office.

The Mason-Dixon poll released Thursday morning found that 49 percent of respondents support Trump’s impeachment and subsequent removal from office, with 48 percent opposed and 3 percent unsure.

The divide is much sharper regionally, with 62 percent of respondents in Northern Virginia backing impeachment and 62 percent of rural Virginians opposing it. Impeachment and removal is least popular in Roanoke, Va., and southwestern Virginia, where 37 percent support it and 61 percent are opposed.

The survey also found a gender divide on the issue in Virginia, with 39 percent of men polled supporting Trump’s impeachment, compared to 58 percent of women.

Eighty-two percent of black respondents in Virginia supported impeachment and removal with 11 percent opposed, while white Virginians opposed it, 58 percent to 40 percent. Impeachment and removal drew 39 percent support from political independents and 57 percent were opposed.

More Virginia voters generally disapprove of Trump’s presidency than back removing him from office, according to the poll, which found him with a 51 percent disapproval rate in the state. Forty-five percent approved of his performance and 4 percent were unsure.

The results were released hours after Trump became only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. The House late Wednesday approved two articles of impeachment against him. He now faces a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, where it is unlikely he’ll be removed from office. 

The polling firm conducted 625 interviews of registered Virginia voters through landlines and cell phones from Dec. 12 to Dec. 16. The poll has a 4-point margin of error.