A majority of Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley’s voters think he should step down after leading the bid to object to the 2020 election results following the January 6 uprising at the Capitol, according to a new poll by Data For Progress, the liberal polling station.
The Data For Progress poll, shared exclusively with The Daily Beast, finds that 51 percent of likely Missouri voters think Hawley should resign, while 49 percent don’t. One in five Republicans surveyed supported the resignation of the freshman senator, while a majority of self-proclaimed independents and an overwhelming majority of Democrats were also in favor.
When asked how Hawley’s opposition to Electoral College certification might affect their vote in the future, 47 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to vote for Hawley if he was reelected in 2024, while 36 percent said they would would rather vote for him after the gamble.
The poll also found Hawley’s approval rating underwater, with 43 percent of respondents disapproving and 39 percent approving it. One third of respondents had a “very unfavorable” opinion of Hawley, while one in five had a “very favorable” opinion of him.
Data For Progress polled 571 likely voters in Missouri from Jan. 10 to Jan. 12, the weekend after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol to topple the election results. The margin of error was 4.1 points. The company, which FiveThirtyEight calculated to have no partisan bias either way, was the first to question Missouri voters about Hawley’s actions on Jan. 6.
A national survey on Hawley conducted by the firm Ipsos in conjunction with Axios and released Thursday found that 24 percent of respondents had a positive opinion of him and 68 percent were unfavorable – a difference of 44 points. In fact, Hawley’s preference lagged behind the Republicans, with more of them disliking him by a three-point margin than him.
The ambitious Conservative Senator was first elected in 2018, when he beat former Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) by a margin of 51.5 percent to 45.5 percent in this increasingly conservative state, which Donald Trump defeated in November 15. points.
Next time, Hawley is on the agenda against Missouri voters in 2024, the same year as the presidential election in which he is seen as a likely candidate. He aggressively courted Trump’s base with socially conservative and economically populist ideas and, along with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), led a last-ditch effort to overthrow Congress’s perfunctory role in certifying the election. to bend into an opportunity to sue Trump’s claims. of electoral fraud that had been outright rejected by courts and election officials.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Hawley was photographed holding his fist in solidarity with a pro-Trump mob that had gathered outside the Capitol. Hours later, after the violent mob broke into the building and attempted to disrupt election certification and threatened lawmakers, staff, reporters and even Vice President Mike Pence with damage and death, Hawley went to the Senate to say the violence was “legal” disputes from the election even more important.
Hawley’s play may have been misjudged, said Ethan Winter, a Data for Progress analyst – he “ took a position that seems to have infuriated many independents and even some members of his Republican base, ” which Winter says it “ closely follows the recent dip in President Trump’s report. national preference among independent and republican voters. “
Afterward, several of Hawley’s Democratic colleagues called for him to resign – a rare sight in the normally stately Senate. The two major Missouri newspapers also called for his resignation, and several powerful corporate interests, including those in the state, declared they would suspend contributions to his campaigns or even request their money back.
Hawley, increasingly isolated in his party and in Washington, has maintained that he merely reflected the will of Missouri voters. His allies have backed him on that point: “Hawley has a finger on the pulse of Missouri voters much better than many of the people who now criticize him, and I think they should be realistic about that” Gregg Keller, a GOP agent in the state, the Wall Street Journal last week.
While Trump’s approval score has hit new lows nationally – it hit 34 percent in the most recent POLITICO / Morning Consult poll, the lowest ever in four years – it has proven somewhat sustainable in pro-Trump Missouri, and the outgoing president remains far more popular than the senator who has diligently backed him.
According to the Data for Progress poll, 48 percent of Missouri voters approved of Trump’s accomplishment, and 51 percent disapproved, days after he sparked a violent riot and said he loved the people who destroyed the U.S. Capitol performed. According to the survey, 83 percent of Republicans continued to have a positive view of Trump.