(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Poll: Likely GOP caucusgoers disapprove of Trump criticism, ongoing Ukraine aid [1]
['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- August']
Date: 2023-08-24
Most likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa say they disapprove of rivals criticizing former President Donald Trump and they oppose continued U.S. military aid to Ukraine, according to the most recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll.
Some candidates, including former governors Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie, criticized Trump at the first Republican primary debate Wednesday in Milwaukee. Trump did not attend, instead airing an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on X, formerly Twitter. But the former president and current frontrunner for the nomination came up multiple times in the main debate, with only Hutchinson and Christie saying they would not support Trump’s 2024 candidacy if he is convicted.
In the August poll results, 54% of likely Republican caucusgoers said they would be less likely to favor a candidate who criticizes Trump, the Register reported. It was the only issue tested that a majority of poll respondents said would make them less likely to support a presidential candidate, with 29% saying criticizing Trump would not matter to them and 16% saying criticizing Trump would make them more likely to support a candidate.
Most candidates have avoided direct criticism of Trump, who led the field with 42% in the poll. Candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Perry Johnson have said they would pardon Trump if elected president, while several others, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, have accused the U.S. Department of Justice and federal law enforcement agencies of unfairly targeting conservatives.
Trump was expected to turn himself in Thursday at the Fulton County jail in Georgia, where he and 18 co-defendants face grand jury indictments for allegedly attempting to overturn 2020 election results.
Ukraine aid
Another issue unpopular with likely Republican caucusgoers was continuing to provide Ukraine with U.S. military aid in their war against Russia. While 35% of Republican likely caucusgoers said supporting continued aid to Ukraine would make them more likely to back a candidate, 43% said it would make them less likely to support a candidate.
Republican 2024 hopefuls have clashed on the issue. Former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley have both called for supporting U.S. allies. During Wednesday’s debate, DeSantis and Ramaswamy both spoke against continuing aid.
While Ramaswamy argued that the funding going to Ukraine should be put toward U.S. border security, Haley said not providing military support for Ukraine would be “choosing a murderer,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, over a U.S. ally.
“You will make America less safe,” Haley told Ramaswamy at the debate as the audience applauded. “You have no foreign policy experience and it shows.”
Border security
The top issues likely GOP caucusgoers said would make them more likely to favor a candidate were using the military to secure the U.S.-Mexico border with 77%, “fighting the left’s woke agenda” at 65% and banning gender-affirming health care, such as puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy or surgical interventions, for minors at 61%.
Though candidates disagreed with Ramaswamy’s proposal to redirect funding from Ukraine to the border, the candidates all said the U.S. needs to bolster its defense along the U.S.-Mexico border. Scott said he would redirect President Joe Biden’s administration funding for hiring new IRS agents to border security measures, while Hutchinson said he would put economic pressure on the Mexican government to put more resources into combatting cartels.
DeSantis said he would allow the use of lethal force at the border to stop drug trafficking, and would consider sending special forces into Mexico in order to fight cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
“We’re gonna use force,” DeSantis said. “And we’re gonna leave them stone-cold dead.”
Abortion
More than half, 54%, of poll respondents also said they would be more likely to favor a candidate who supported the proposed 15-week federal abortion ban. A majority of likely Republican caucusgoers also said they believed Iowa’s law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy “gets it about right” on restricting the procedure.
All Republican presidential candidates said they consider themselves “pro-life,” but not all have advocated for the 15-week ban. Pence and Scott both spoke strongly in favor of the federal proposal during the debate. Haley said it was unlikely that a federal ban on the procedure would be able to gather the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, instead calling for party leaders to work together and create a less restrictive proposal that could get through Congress.
Pence said a federal “consensus” abortion law would not go far enough, and that there was national support for a 15-week abortion ban.
“Nikki, you’re my friend, but consensus is the opposite of leadership,” Pence said. “… It’s not a states-only issue, it’s a moral issue.”
Six states have voted on abortion-related ballot measures since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In all cases, the pro-abortion rights side won.
The Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll was conducted Aug. 13-17 by Selzer & Co. with a sample of 406 registered voters in Iowa who are likely to attend the Republican caucuses. Results based on the full sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. Read more about how the poll was conducted here.
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