Reuters/Ipsos Core Political Survey: Impeachment Tracker (11/06/2019)

Washington, D.C., November 6, 2019 -  Today, House Democrats announced that the first public impeachment hearings are set to start next week, with three top-level officials scheduled to testify. Public opinion about impeaching President Trump continues to hold steady according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. Overall, 45% of Americans believe the president should be impeached, 41% believe that he should not, while 14% are unsure. Among registered voters, opinion is statistically the same compared with the general population – 47% support impeachment, 41% do not, and 12% are unsure. These figures are not significantly different from recent weeks, though there is an overall small increase in support for impeachment since the first time this question was asked in May of last year, when 39% of Americans said the president should be impeached. Opinions on this issue continue to fall along party lines – 77% of Democratic registered voters support impeachment and 12% do not. This is essentially the reverse of Republican registered voters, of whom 13% support impeachment, and 80% do not.  

Even as coverage of impeachment hearings and Trump’s defense of his actions dominate media coverage, Trump’s approval rating among Americans has remained steady at 40%. The same pattern of partisanship seen with opinion about impeachment is also evident with the president’s approval rating. President Trump has the approval of just one in ten (10%) Democratic registered voters, and 87% disapprove. Among registered Republican voters, the president enjoys an 83% approval rating.  

With regards to the general direction of the country, 3 in 10 Americans think it is headed in the right direction (31%), nearly twice as many think it is off on the wrong track (54%), and 15% say they don’t know. Among registered voters, these numbers are virtually the same – 32% say the country is going in the right direction, 57% say it is off on the wrong track, and 10% don’t know. Democratic registered voters have retained their pessimism about the direction of the country - 81% say it is headed in the wrong direction- and only 11% feel good about where the country is going. Sixty-four percent (64%) of Republican registered voters say the country is going in the right direction, and about a quarter say it is not (25%).  

The country’s top concerns among all Americans continue to be healthcare (21%), the economy and jobs (16%) and immigration (14%). Partisan concerns also remain stable, with Democratic registered voters most worried about healthcare (25%), the economy and jobs (16%), and the environment. Republican registered voters are more worried about immigration (26%), healthcare (20%) and the economy and jobs (14%).  

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between November 4-5, 2019 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,114 adults age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 944 registered voters, 443 Democratic registered voters, 378 Republican registered voters, and 89 Independent registered voters. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval ± 3.6 percentage points for registered voters, ± 5.3 percentage points for Democratic registered voters, ± 5.7 percentage points for Republican registered voters, ± 11.8 percentage points for Independent registered voters.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

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