Women, college-educated whites and independent voters who helped Donald Trump win the presidency are showing signs that they’ve had enough of him.
Citing several polls conducted after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered an impeachment inquiry last week, Politico reports that “women voters [are] rallying behind her decision.”
Further, says the political website, the White House is increasingly concerned “that white women who helped carry Trump to victory in 2016 can no longer be counted on” next year.
“Taken together, the latest polls paint an alarming picture for the president, whose base is sticking by him but cannot be counted on by themselves to deliver him a second term,” Politico says.
Suburban, college-educated white voters are at the heart of the apparent shift away from Trump.
“If you look at college-educated whites, those are probably some of the most engaged voters,” Republican pollster Michah Roberts told Politico. “They are a big and important chunk of the electorate and they have shifted the most resolutely toward impeachment so far.”
The impeachment allegations against Trump — that he pressured Ukraine to investigate his 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden — are only now being digested by voters, with both parties seeking a clearer picture of where they stand.
If it looks like support for impeachment is growing, that “could spur a moment of reckoning for Republicans on Capitol Hill,” Politico says, adding that:
“Should impeachment gain the support of an undeniable majority, Republicans who previously declined to distance themselves from the president could quickly change their calculus — setting Trump on the same lonely course that led to President Richard Nixon’s Watergate-era resignation in August 1974.”
Two people “familiar with the effort” told Politico that the National Republican Congressional Committee is conducting an internal poll “related to impeachment,” hoping to determine where key demographic groups now stand.
