Brynn Anderson/AP Poll: Roy Moore should be kicked out of Senate if he wins

A majority of voters nationwide say Republican Roy Moore should be expelled from the Senate if he wins a seat in the chamber in Tuesday’s special election in Alabama, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

More than six-in-10 voters (61 percent) — including a plurality of Republicans — think the Senate should expel the embattled Moore, who has been accused of pursuing and molesting teenage girls while in his 30s. That includes 77 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents and 45 percent of Republicans.


There’s also a gender gap, especially among Republicans, on the issue of expulsion. Half of female Republicans think the Senate should expel Moore, but just 39 percent of Republican men agree.

Only 17 percent of voters think the Senate should not expel Moore if he defeats Democrat Doug Jones in Tuesday’s election — including 7 percent of Democrats, 16 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans.

Moore and Jones are down to the wire in a close race to fill the remaining three years of now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ unexpired term in the Senate. The polls vary on which candidate is ahead, and some pollsters are cautioning that their surveys shouldn’t be interpreted as a prediction because of greater uncertainty in the special election.

Most voters also believe the Republican National Committee was wrong to reinstate its support for Moore’s campaign, which came last week, after President Donald Trump endorsed Moore, despite the scandal. A 52 percent majority says the RNC did the wrong thing in supporting Moore, while only 20 percent say it was the right thing to back Moore.

Republican voters are split on the question: 35 percent say the RNC did the right thing, and 34 percent say it was the wrong thing to do.

Nearly four-in-10 voters say the RNC’s decision to support Moore makes them less likely to support the committee in the future, while 11 percent say it makes them more likely and 31 percent say it doesn’t change their mind either way.

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Trump and the other Republicans who have embraced Moore have argued that the GOP nominee is preferable since he will support the party’s agenda. That tribalism principle, at least, is aligned with Republican voters nationwide, the poll shows: 62 percent of GOP voters say a candidate’s policy positions are more important than their character. Only 28 percent say a candidate’s character is more important.

Republicans are more likely to say a candidate’s policy positions are more important than their character, though pluralities of Democrats (49 percent) and independents (48 percent) also say a candidate’s policy positions are more important.

“The RNC’s decision to back Roy Moore could have a negative impact on voter support down the road,” said Morning Consult Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer Kyle Dropp. “That being said, most voters still say they vote more based off a candidate's policy positions than his or her character."

The poll was conducted December 8-11, surveying 1,955 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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: http://politi.co/2BeR7NH | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2jSJSkx