In the closely watched swing state of Florida, voters are completely split on whether an impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump is the right course for Congress.
Forty-eight percent of registered voters here — mostly Democrats — support the House’s impeachment inquiry into the president, according to a new survey from University of North Florida, while 47 percent — almost all Republicans — disapprove. That leaves just 5 percent of voters without an opinion.
About 46 percent of Florida voters are ready to impeach Trump today, but 48 percent aren’t there yet.
“Either they support removing him from office, or they are opposed to the impeachment inquiry entirely,” said Michael Binder, faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab at UNF.
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Propping up the president, it appears, is a small but sizable percentage of the electorate, mostly no-party affiliation voters, who think Trump is doing a poor job as president but aren’t yet convinced an impeachment inquiry is necessary. Trump’s approval rating sags in the sunshine state, the poll found, with just 44 percent giving him a thumbs up while 53 percent say otherwise, including 55 percent of these NPAs.
The most alarming sign for Democrats in the poll is the suggestion that a majority of Hispanic voters do not approve of the House’s investigation. In fact, 40 percent strongly disapprove of it. Trump and Republicans have expended a lot of energy on Florida’s diverse and disparate Hispanic communities in hopes that they can suppress the traditional Democratic advantage among these voters.
Despite his unpopularity, Trump continues to run neck-and-neck with the leading Democratic contenders in Florida, a state that every successful presidential campaign has won since 1992. Former Vice President Joe Biden topped Trump in the poll 48 percent to 43 and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren held a narrow 3-point lead as well. But Trump polled slightly ahead of California Sen. Kamala Harris and Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg. Sen. Bernie Sanders, another front runner, was not included in the poll.
Harris and Buttigieg failed to garner the same support in the black community as Biden and Warren, the poll found, with far more African American voters remaining undecided if the later-two are on the ballot.