Utah voters are nearly evenly split on whether House Democrats should move forward with the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
A new Utah Political Trends survey from UtahPolicy.com and Y2 Analytics finds nearly half of voters in Utah say Congress should not hold impeachment hearings and allow President Trump to finish his term. Just over a third say that there is enough evidence for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump right now, while another 19% believe Congress should continue investigating to see if they will find evidence to hold impeachment hearings in the future.
Currently, Congress is investigating whether President Trump abused his power by asking a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political rival.
The new numbers are not much different from our August survey about potential impeachment hearings against President Trump. The new poll took place between September 25 and October 8, 2019. During that time, the White House released a partial transcript of President Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president that seemingly confirmed an anonymous whistleblower complaint about the call. House Democrats also released text messages from US diplomats that showed a visit to the White House for the Ukrainian leader was seemingly contingent on him publicly stating they would investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as the supposed Ukranian role in the 2016 election, a conspiracy theory that is popular in far-right circles.
National Republicans are targeting Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams after he said he favored opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump. They’ve launched a digital ad campaign and held a rally outside his district office earlier this week.
More than half of the voters in McAdams’ district either support opening up an impeachment inquiry into Trump or continuing the investigation. Just 44% say Congress should back off the current impeachment inquiry.
Overall, support for impeachment grew slightly in almost every one of Utah’s Congressional Districts. The only outlier is the 4th District represented by McAdams.
- In August, 28% of voters in the 1st District said there was enough evidence to begin impeachment now. That number jumped to 34% in the current survey.
- 31% of voters in Rep. Chris Stewart’s 2nd District said Congress should start impeachment now. That has grown to 39% in the new poll. Stewart has been one of President Trump’s most adamant supporters in Congress, casting doubt on whether Trump’s interactions with Ukraine were worthy of impeachment.
- Support in the 3rd District grew from 26% in August to 31% now.
Curiously, while support for impeachment did not increase in McAdams’ 4th District, voters there are increasingly in favor of more investigation. In August 17% of 4th District voters said Congress should continue investigating. Now, 24% say the investigations should continue.
The Utah Political Trends survey was conducted for UtahPolicy.com by Y2 Analytics from September 25 to October 8, 2019 among 979 registered Utah voters. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
