A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll suggests Republicans’ decision to confirm Brett Kavanaugh lacks broad support and has animated Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL Poll: Kavanaugh confirmation energizes Democrats more than GOP A total of 46 percent say the Senate ‘made the wrong decision.’

Republicans are touting the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as rocket fuel for the GOP grass roots in next month’s midterm elections, but it’s Democrats who appear more energized by the nomination fight, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation is not popular: In the poll, which was conducted after last week’s Senate vote, 46 percent of voters said the Senate "made the wrong decision" in approving the controversial judge, while 40 percent said it was right to elevate him to the high court.


And following the GOP-led effort to push through his nomination, enthusiasm among Democratic voters has surged. More than 3 in 4 Democrats (77 percent) say they are “very motivated” to turn out and vote in the midterms — more than the 68 percent of Republicans who say they’re “very motivated.”

Prior to Kavanaugh’s confirmation, some polls had showed an uptick in GOP interest in this year’s elections. And it’s possible the fight over his nomination may have more positive effects for Republicans in key red states in the battle for control of the Senate — like Indiana, Missouri, Montana and North Dakota — than nationally, where Kavanaugh is less popular.

But the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll findings suggest that Republicans’ decision to confirm Kavanaugh lacks broad support and has animated Democrats with only four weeks to go until President Donald Trump’s first midterm elections.

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The Senate confirmed Kavanaugh to the high court on Saturday by a narrow margin, 50-48, after a fractious debate over sexual assault allegations leveled against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford, who attended a neighboring high school in the Washington suburbs. Ford testified under oath that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when they were teenagers, though Senate Republicans said no one interviewed in a narrow FBI investigation could corroborate her account.

More than three-quarters of Democrats, 78 percent, say the Senate made the wrong decision in confirming Kavanaugh, while just 11 percent say it was the right decision. Support for Kavanaugh’s confirmation among Republicans lags slightly at 73 percent, compared to 12 percent who say it was the wrong decision.

Independent voters are far less supportive of the decision to confirm Kavanaugh: 47 percent say the Senate erred in confirming him, while 34 percent say it made the right decision.

Asked whether it would make them more or less likely to vote for a Senate candidate who supported confirming Kavanaugh, 36 percent of voters say it would make them less likely — more than the 31 percent who would be more likely to vote for a Kavanaugh-supporting Senate candidate. Roughly a third said it would make no difference in their vote (22 percent) or had no opinion (10 percent).

A plurality of voters, 44 percent, said the confirmation process gave them a less favorable view of Kavanaugh — including 36 percent who said it made them view him much less favorably — while 30 percent said it made them more favorable toward him.

Overall, the poll shows a slight downtick in Trump’s approval rating, which slid from 43 percent last week to 41 percent this week. A majority of voters, 56 percent, disapprove of Trump’s job performance — up from 53 percent last week and equaling the previous high-water mark, set in August 2017 and September 2018.

Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by 10 percentage points, 48 percent to 38 percent, with 14 percent of voters undecided. Last week, Democrats’ lead was slightly smaller, 43 percent to 36 percent.

The poll also shows a spike in voter enthusiasm — particularly among Democrats.

“Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation battle appears to be a significant motivator, as voter enthusiasm for the upcoming midterms has hit its highest point since Morning Consult and POLITICO began tracking the issue,” said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president. “In this week’s poll, 70 percent of voters say they are very motivated to vote — including 77 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Republicans, and 60 percent of independents. One month ago, 64 percent said they were very motivated — including 67 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of Republicans, and 55 percent of independents.”

The poll of 2,189 registered voters was conducted online on Sunday. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points, though one-day surveys can also carry small, additional errors.

While Republicans have cited an increase in excitement among their voters during the Kavanaugh fight — and some polls last week indicated that the GOP had closed the enthusiasm gap — both the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll and a CNN/SSRS survey conducted over the past weekend and released Tuesday show Democrats more animated than Republicans.

In the CNN poll — which showed Democrats with a 9-point lead on the generic ballot among registered voters and a 13-point lead among likely voters — 68 percent of self-identified Democratic voters described themselves as extremely or very enthusiastic about voting for Congress this year, compared with just 56 percent of Republicans.

That survey also found, on balance, voters opposed the Kavanaugh confirmation. A majority of registered voters, 53 percent, said they didn’t want to see the Senate vote in favor of Kavanaugh, while 42 percent did want to see him confirmed.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: https://politi.co/2pRImC9 | Crosstabs: https://politi.co/2OQnoRY