GOP Will Have Tough Time Distancing Themselves from Ugly Policies
As we highlighted yesterday, internal Republican polling of battleground congressional districts found that the cruel family separation policy has hurt President Trump and Republicans’ standing among moderates and independents in congressional battlegrounds. Despite the toll, the Republicans’ midterm “divide and distract” strategy is all about injecting more immigration ugliness into contests across the country.
Now, newly released nationwide polling from CNN offers additional evidence that the GOP-wide effort to double down on the immigration ugliness embraced by this President, Stephen Miller, and other nativist hard liners may be broadly unpopular and at direct odds with the Republican imperative to maintain appeal beyond the GOP’s hardline base.
The CNN poll asked whether respondents approved or disapproved of the way President Trump was handling immigration. Among the related findings of note:
- Americans broadly disapprove of President Trump’s handling of immigration, with 59 percent disapproving and 35 percent approving.
- The 35 percent approval for Trump on immigration is tied for his lowest-ever approval rating among the 13 different times the CNN poll has asked the question during the Trump presidency.
- Democrats disapprove by a 90-6 percent margin and Independents by a 64-29 percent margin.
