Embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson, who faces a historic vote to remove the gavel in the House next week and strip him of the speakership, has fallen sharply among Republicans and supporters of former President Donald Trump. and is surging among Democrats and supporters of Democratic presidents. Joe Biden.
After Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a privileged resolution on the motion to remove Johnson as speaker of the House, Democrats voted in favor of Greene’s motion to remove Johnson from office. I intend to protect his job. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, has made it clear that Democrats intend to protect the American people, as evidenced by the Democrats’ vote on the rules for the foreign aid package in early April. did. Johnson. But many may wonder why Democrats, who voted en masse to strip former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of the gavel last October, would throw such a lifeline to Mr. Johnson to save him.
Polls from the past few weeks economist and YouGov are capturing the story of Johnson surging with Democrats and collapsing with Republicans. In the past two weeks alone, Mr. Johnson has seen a double-digit shift toward him among Democrats and away from him among Republicans.
Three consecutive surveys from economist/YouGov shows trends. Back in mid-April, before Johnson handed control of the House of Representatives to Democrats over a foreign aid package that would send billions of dollars in American tax money to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Overall favorability ratings were already below the surface, with Johnson’s overall approval rating at 26%. 35% disapproved of his job performance. 39 percent This survey The survey, conducted from April 14 to April 16, did not reveal how people felt about Mr Johnson.
However, when looking at the demographic breakdown of responses to this question, the divide in mid-April was striking when it came to Trump vs. Biden supporters and Republicans vs. Democrats. Among Trump voters at the time, 50% approved of Johnson, 18% disapproved, and 32% didn’t know. Among Republicans, Johnson had a 44% approval rating, 22% disapproval and 34% uncertainty. Among Biden supporters, Johnson’s approval rating was 12%, his disapproval rating was 61%, and 27% did not know. Among Democrats, 14% approve of Johnson, 52% disapprove, and 34% don’t know.
Just a week later, the numbers were completely in Johnson’s favor, amidst his betrayal of an earlier promise not to hand over Ukrainian aid without actually implementing border security here in the United States.next economist/YouGov pollThe survey, conducted from April 21st to April 23rd, found that 31% of the sample supported Mr Johnson (up 6%), while 42% disapproved of him (up 7%). % indicated that they did not know. So what accounts for the dramatic change in Johnson’s numbers from last week? The answer is a large drop in Republicans and Trump supporters, and an equally large increase in Democrats rushing to Trump’s defense. It’s a combination of
The new poll found Johnson’s approval rating among Trump supporters fell from 50% to 47%, while his disapproval rating rose from 18% to 27%, a net 12-point change in one week. . Johnson’s approval rating among Republicans as a whole rose 2 points from 44% to 46% last week, as establishment Republicans flocked to his side as Trump supporters turned away from him in droves. The percentage remained unchanged at 22%. Disapproval rate. But among Democrats, Johnson saw a net 8-point improvement, with his approval rating still at 14%, but his disapproval rating dropping from 61% to 53%. This is a significant improvement in a week for the leader of the supposed opposition. And among Biden voters, Johnson improved by a net 4 points over the week. His approval rating there jumped from 12% to 16%, but his disapproval rating remained at 61%.
This trend continued for another week late last week and continued this week.of Next weekly survey from economist/YouGov, conducted from April 28 to April 30, showed an even greater acceleration of this trend. Just a week after his betrayal on Ukraine aid, his approval rating has fallen to 26 percent, completely wiping out the gains from the sell-out, but his overall disapproval rating is also lower than that of the general sample. It’s going down again in the. up to 37 percent. Although net neutral following the passage of the foreign aid package, the overall index is 2% worse than it was two weeks ago. But here, too, deep demographic shifts between Johnson supporters and unsupporters continue, and are accelerating here too.
Among Trump supporters, Johnson’s approval rating has fallen to just 41%, while his disapproval rating has fallen to as high as 31%, with another double-digit swing against him from a week ago and two weeks ago. , resulting in a net 21% change versus Johnson. This is real and measurable, and it’s basically unprecedented and brutal for approval ratings to decline this quickly. Even among Republicans, the establishment euphoria he felt after passing the foreign aid package has completely dissipated. In this latest poll, Mr Johnson’s approval rating has fallen to 39, while his disapproval rating has risen to 27%. This represents a 12 percentage point swing among Republicans against Mr. Johnson in one week.
This latest poll shows that Mr Johnson currently enjoys the support of 18% of Democrats, while just 51% of Democrats disapprove of him, leading to Mr Johnson’s coalition government. seems to be shifting completely from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. Week-over-week, the trend among Democrats was a net 6% toward Johnson, and from two weeks ago, the trend among Democrats was 14%.
It has also improved for the second week in a row among Biden voters, with Johnson’s net approval rating among the Democratic president’s supporters increasing by 4% over the past two weeks, and Johnson’s overall approval rating among Biden voters as a whole. This amounted to 8%. His approval rating among Biden voters remained at 16%, the same as last week, and his disapproval rating fell 4 points to 57%.
This rapid realignment of political power, with Democrats and Biden supporters flocking to Johnson’s side and Trump supporters and Republicans habitually excluding Johnson, reflects the way Republicans and Trump supporters view Greene, who is leading the ouster. are in contrast. Johnson. During this period, Greene’s approval rating among Republicans remained at 39 percent, but her disapproval rating among Republicans actually increased from 27 percent to the third poll. That’s down to just 20 percent, a net plus of 7 – the percentage of Republicans who approved of Greene’s approach in the past two weeks.
Among Trump supporters, Greene seems more positive about her approach. She began this series of polls with a 47 percent approval rating among Trump supporters, and while her approval rating has maintained, her disapproval rating has dropped 2 points, from 25 percent to 23 percent. did.
Asked for a response to the plummeting poll numbers for Republicans and Trump supporters, and the sharp rise in numbers for Democrats and Biden supporters, Johnson’s spokesman Raj Shah told Breitbart News: I would like to see the opinion polls.” When Breitbart News gave him the exact poll above, he responded to a question about whether Johnson loved his newfound support for the Democratic Party. He did not respond other than to say he was referring to a press conference he had held. At the press conference to which Shah referred, Johnson did not mention the Trump supporters and Republicans nationwide who left him in droves, or the Democrats who rushed to his side across the country, but Democrats in Congress. said they supported Mr. Johnson.
Asked at a news conference about Jeffries’ announcement that Democrats would vote to protect him, Johnson said, “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.” He continued:
Look, I have to do my job. We must do what we believe is right. What this country needs now is a functioning Congress. They need a Congress that works well, works together, and doesn’t impede their own ability to solve these problems. So we saw what happened with the last eviction motion. Parliament was closed for three weeks. No one can afford to allow that to happen. Therefore, in order to continue and accomplish this work, we need people who are serious about this work. Therefore, I have to do what I believe is right every day and let the chips fall.
In a follow-up, Mr. Johnson was asked whether he would be comfortable continuing as Speaker of the House simply because Democrats support him and he does not have the necessary support among Republicans. In response, he answered as follows: Helps the whole body. ”
“I’m a conservative Republican, a lifelong conservative Republican,” Johnson added with a laugh, then turned to his lower right. “That is my philosophy, that is my record, and we will continue to govern by those principles. I hope, my friends, that we have the support of the entire country. But just a moment ago… As I said, I have to keep working and keep my head down. These are very serious times for this country. We’re not playing games here. The world is on fire because of all the things we have said. We should not play politics and get involved in palace intrigues. We have to do the job we expect. That’s what I’m working on, and I’ll continue to pursue that every day. We’ll keep the wheels of government working.”
