Poll: Voters split on whether Senate should confirm Kavanaugh

Voters are near-evenly split on whether the Senate should confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, according to a Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday.

Forty-one percent of respondents said the Senate should not give Kavanaugh, a judge on the powerful D.C. Court of Appeals, the thumbs up. Another 40 percent said the chamber should sign off on his nomination. 

The poll suggests Americans are even more divided on Kavanaugh’s nomination than they were on that of Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first pick for the Supreme Court who was confirmed last year.

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A similar question posed to voters last year by Quinnipiac found 50 percent favoring confirmation for Gorsuch, compared to 35 percent who said the Senate should not approve his nomination.

Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the high court earlier this month, after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced that he would retire this summer.

Senate Republican leaders have called for the chamber to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination this fall ahead of the November elections. Democrats, however, have said that any vote should wait until after the midterms. 

Kavanaugh’s nomination has been hotly debated. His confirmation would mean installing a reliable conservative on the court in place of Kennedy, who has often acted as a swing vote on key rulings.

Critics of Kavanaugh have expressed concern that his confirmation could set the stage for new rulings on issues such as abortion rights and health care.

The Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday also shows that voters are deeply divided on the Kavanaugh question along gender and racial lines. 

Men favor Kavanaugh’s confirmation with 50 percent support compared with 35 percent opposition, while 46 percent of women oppose his confirmation and 32 percent support it, the poll found.

Forty-six percent of white voters said that Kavanaugh should be confirmed, compared to 38 percent who said the opposite. A majority of black voters – 61 percent – oppose confirmation for Kavanaugh, while only 15 percent believe the Senate should confirm him.

Hispanic voters are split on the matter, with 37 percent favoring confirmation and 38 percent not.

The poll surveyed 1,177 voters nationwide from July 18-23. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.