Only 44 percent of voters say the Senate should confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Justice, with 38 percent saying he should not be confirmed and 19 percent undecided, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released on Wednesday.
However, 83 percent say he is likely to be confirmed, while only eight percent say his confirmation is not very or not at all likely.
In other results from the survey:
- In comparison to the 44 percent who say Kavanaugh should be confirmed, 51 percent of voters said Neil Gorsuch should be confirmed just after his nomination in February 2017, 45 percent believed Sonia Sotomayor should be confirmed following her nomination by former President Barack Obama in May 2009 and just 33 percent said Elena Kagan should be confirmed after Obama's nomination of her in May 2010.
- Fifty-one percent say the Senate should move as quickly as possible to confirm a justice, and 87 percent say the selection of a new justice is important to their vote in November. Democrats want to delay the confirmation vote to next year when they hope they will regain majority control of the Senate.
- Forty-one percent of voters view Kavanaugh favorably, including 28 percent who share a very favorable opinion of him, while 33 percent regard him unfavorably, with 20 percent very unfavorable towards him. Twenty-six percent are not sure what they think of the nominee.
- By comparison, 48 percent viewed Gorsuch favorably right after his nomination, while Sotomayor and Kagan were seen favorably by 49 percent and 45 percent respectively.
- Seventy-one percent of Republicans view Kavanaugh favorably, compared to 15 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of independents. Some 30 percent of both Democrats and independents are undecided.
- Among Republicans, 79 percent said Kavanaugh should be confirmed by the Senate, while only 16 percent of Democrats agree. Independents are almost evenly divided, with 26 percent not sure.
- Only 26 percent of blacks view Kavanaugh favorably, compared to 44 percent of whites and 41 percent of other minority voters.
The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on July 10. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points, with a 95 percent level of confidence.