October 2019

Battleground Poll

The October 2019 Battleground Poll presented a mixed bag for President Trump. Only 43% of voters approve of his overall job performance and only 35% believe it is headed in the right direction. Taken in the midst of the House’s impeachment investigation, a slim majority of American voters were in favor of impeachment. On the other hand, Trump maintained a strong lead on the economy. Approval of the President’s job performance on the economy 57-41%, and on jobs by a similar margin of 57-40%. Moving forward to the 2020 election, Democrats and Republicans have particular strengths that they’ll need to emphasize in order to win.

View the full press release with detailed results here, or click on the links below to view data and individual summaries from Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group:

Lake Summary

Graphics and Slides

Dataset

Tarrance Summary

Questionnaire and Toplines

Crosstabs

Civility Poll

The October 2019 Civility Poll found that 8 in 10 voters want both “compromise and common ground” as well as leaders who “will stand up to the other side,” a conflicting contrast. As well, the average voter believes the U.S. is two-thirds of the way to the edge of a civil war. On a 0-100 scale with 100 being “edge of a civil war,” the mean response is 67.23. Though voters do largely agree that politics has become too uncivil, focused more on conflict than potential solutions. These criticisms are not necessarily mutually exclusive, of course, but they do suggest a more complex and nuanced perspective on American politics, and one which goes beyond frustration over a decline in civility alone.