Despite Democrats' Best Efforts, Majority of Americans Want Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court

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Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP)
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Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee attempted to do a lot of scaremongering over Judge Amy Coney Barrett during the confirmation hearings. Assisted by their friends in the media, they painted a picture of a woman who would ruin the healthcare of millions and possibly enforce a handmaid’s lifestyle on women, thanks to her Christian beliefs and terrifying ability to raise seven children, two of whom are adopted from Haiti.

They failed to convince America that she was a major problem, however, and according to a Gallup poll released on Tuesday, a majority of Americans are good with Barrett sitting on the Supreme Court. Given, it’s a slim majority, but it’s a majority nonetheless:

A slim 51% majority of Americans support federal judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat left vacant by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last month. At the same time, 46% of U.S. adults do not want Barrett to be seated, and 3% do not yet have an opinion of her nomination.

Interestingly, according to Gallup, Barrett has a lot more support than any of the other Trump nominees but simultaneously, more opposition than any others as well. The reason is due to Americans being more certain of their opinions than ever before:

Barrett is the twelfth Supreme Court nominee for whom Gallup has measured public support since 1987. The public’s initial support for Barrett’s confirmation is higher than either of President Donald Trump’s two previous nominees — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — had at any point prior to their confirmations. But opposition is also higher than any other nominee’s initial reading. This is owed to the fact that the percentage of Americans with no opinion on the Barrett vote is strikingly lower than it has been for any other nominee in Gallup’s history.

Several factors may be contributing to the high proportion of Americans expressing an opinion on Barrett’s confirmation. Among them is the fact that the nomination process is unfolding during a presidential election campaign in which millions of voters have already cast their ballots. Additionally, Democrats have cited the 2016 precedent when Republican senators refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland nearly eight months before that year’s election. Moreover, the fact that Barrett had been cited in the past as a possible nominee by Trump may have raised awareness about her.

Notably, although more Americans want to see Barrett confirmed than not, polling by other organizations has shown solid majorities wanting the winner of the Nov. 3 election and the newly elected Senate to make the nomination rather than President Trump and the current Senate.

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What’s not being talked about here is the interesting fact that a Trump nominee actually has more support, despite being highly-opposed. Those who would support Barrett and her values being put into the Supreme Court outnumber those who would flat-out reject it.

That doesn’t mean anything good for Democrats, in the greater political landscape. Even with Democrats fully embracing the rejection of Trump’s nominee, they still couldn’t beat out the majority of Americans. It could very well be that even those who oppose Trump also like Barrett, but during an election year and everyone splitting off into their respective corners, that margin would likely be slim as well.

Time will tell, but this poll may be more worrisome for Democrats than they know.

(READ: The Real Reason Democrats Want to Stop Amy Coney Barrett)

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