A majority of Americans would like the Senate to hold a confirmation vote on President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before the midterm elections this November, according to an NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday.
A significant majority, 62 percent, of respondents said the Republican-led Senate should vote prior to the election to either confirm or reject Trump’s nominee, who will be announced Monday, while 33 percent said the vote should take place after the election.
Support for a confirmation vote prior to the midterms is strongest among Republicans at 85 percent, but a majority of Democrats (55 percent) also believe the vote should not be delayed.
The poll indicates a lack of popular support for minority leader Chuck Schumer’s justification for delaying a confirmation vote in hopes that the composition of the Senate will be more favorable after the election. Hours after learning of Justice Kennedy’s retirement, Schumer argued on the Senate floor that the upper chamber should ensure confirmation proceedings are responsive to the will of the electorate by waiting until after new Senators have been voted in to take a vote.
To defend the delay as in keeping with precedent, Schumer cited majority leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to refuse a confirmation vote on Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016. But McConnell pushed back in his own floor speech, noting that he delayed a confirmation vote in the final year of a lame duck presidency, thereby ensuring the electorate would have a say in who put forward a nomination rather than who would vote to confirm.
A majority of Democrats (53 percent) and Independents (63 percent) said Trump’s nominee, who will be selected off a standing list of 25 judges, should be a moderate, while 65 percent of Republicans would like to see a conservative nominated.
Independent of party affiliation, 61 percent of respondents want a justice who will uphold Roe v. Wade confirmed while just 30 percent said hope Trump’s pick overturns the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion.