Poll: Majority of Americans, Including 81 Percent of Trump Voters, Back President Trump’s “Farmer Bailout”
President Donald Trump enters Scheels Arena in Fargo on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. David Samson / The Forum
When President Donald Trump decided to do something about something Republicans and Democrats alike acknowledge is a problem – China’s unfair and often illegal trade practices – it created blow back in the form of China using tariffs to attack products Americans export to that country. Soybeans a notable example from our region.
Politically this has created an opportunity for Democrats like Senate incumbent Heidi Heitkamp and U.S. House candidate Mac Schneider. They’ve needed a wedge issue to drive between Trump and his rural base and so have been promoting the idea that Trump is hurting farmers.
Which is true, to a point, as evidenced by the fact that the Trump administration has subsequently announced a $12 billion aid package for farmers. But Democrats, who have a political need for farmers to be hurting right now, sneered at the aid package.
But it turns out that move has been pretty popular according to polling from Morning Consult/POLITICO who polled the issue in a survey conducted from July 26-30, 2018 involving nearly 2,000 voters from across the country. They found that 57 percent support the aid package while 26 percent oppose with 17 percent not certain.
I can’t find where the poll has been reported anywhere online, but Morning Consult included the results in their daily email. Here’s their summary of the findings from the email:
The full crosstabs are below. There are no North Dakota-specific results, but as the summary above notes the aid package does have 63 percent approval from rural voters. Also interesting is that it has an 81 percent approval among Trump voters.
Remember that so many voters in North Dakota cast their ballots for Trump in 2016 that Senator Heitkamp has had to invest a lot of energy in her campaign touting how often she votes for the President’s agenda. Heitkamp has even taken to using a self-described Trump voter in her television ads.
Here are the full poll results:
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