Partisanship steers public opinion on Kavanaugh more than gender, says pollster

Pollster Mallory Newall said on Monday that partisanship with likely play a bigger role than gender will in determining voters’ opinions of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. 

“I think partisanship still overtakes gender, meaning that Republican women are still more akin to behave closer to or have opinions closer to Republican men than say, Democratic women,” Newall, research director at Ipsos Public Affairs, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.” 

Forty-one percent of men said they feel Kavanaugh should be confirmed, while 29 percent of women said the same, according to a recent CBS News survey. Seventy percent of Republican women in the same poll, however, said they felt that Kavanaugh should be confirmed. 

Sixty-five percent of Democratic women opposed Kavanaugh’s confirmation, as do 73 percent of Democratic men. 

The poll comes as Kavanaugh’s confirmation process has been upended by three sexual misconduct allegations levied against him. 

Kavanaugh forcefully denied the allegations during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, after his first accuser Christine Blasey Ford delivered gripping testimony before the panel describing her story

Newall said that the developments will not likely have a large impact on turnout during the midterms, adding that voters are more concerned about issues such as health care, immigration, and President Trump. 

“I don’t know that this is going to be a factor driving people’s vote in November. There are certainly other issues on the table,” she said. 

— Julia Manchester