President Donald Trump’s support appears to be rising slightly among likely Georgia voters, according to a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News poll, a development that could aid GOP candidates on the ballot next month.
The survey found the president's approval has edged up roughly 4 percentage points compared to a similar poll last month and is now sitting at 46.6 percent. A narrow majority of Georgia voters, roughly 50.3 percent, disapprove of the commander-in-chief, which is more or less flat compared to the AJC's September poll.
The uptick could make a difference for local Republicans whose candidacies could live or die based on what voters make of Trump on Election Day. Midterm elections are often seen as a referendum on the president’s party.
The poll was conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 9, a period when the White House secured a series of political victories. Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed following weeks of partisan rancor, a positive national economic report was released and the administration secured a new free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada after more than a year of tense negotiations. It's unclear how much each factor affected the poll's responses, but some national surveys have suggested the Senate's rancorous confirmation process for Brett Kavanaugh has helped galvanize voters of both parties.
INTERACTIVE: Complete poll results
PDF: View poll crosstabs
RELATED: How the poll was conducted
Trump's increase in Georgia support was particularly noticeable among right-leaning moderates, whose approval increased 7 percentage points. The number of women who said they approved of the president also ticked up to 40.7 percent from 35.4 percent, although the gender gap remained stark.
Trump carried Georgia by 5 percentage points in 2016, but his approval numbers have been underwater in the state ever since, especially among women.
The president, however, still remains wildly popular among Georgia Republicans, which is why every major GOP official in the state has endorsed him. More than 90 percent of the October poll’s Republican respondents said they approved of the work Trump is doing.
One of those voters is Dan Berger, a retired journalist from Sandy Springs who said he expects local Republican candidates to support Trump’s agenda.
“I like the fact that this is a red state and I want my politicians here supporting Donald Trump,” he said.
In what could be a troubling sign for the GOP, roughly two-thirds of independents said they disapproved of the president, a number that’s virtually unchanged from last month.
Paulding County resident James Ward once considered himself a Republican but has drifted into the independent column since Trump was elected. He said he plans to back Democrat Stacey Abrams for governor next month and attributes part of his political shift to “the fact that the Republican Party did not stand up when Trump got so far out of line.”
“I’m aghast at some of the things he says and I don’t like not cooperating with our allies,” the 65-year-old said.
The survey was conducted by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs and has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. It included 1,232 likely general election voters who said they had voted in recent contests and said they were definitely or probably going to vote in November.
Staff writer Greg Bluestein contributed to this article.
Read more coverage of the AJC’s latest poll:
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