Press Releases

New Poll Shows 64% of New Hampshire Voters Want Senate to Fill Supreme Court Vacancy

Feb 29, 2016

WASHINGTON – A new poll out today shows New Hampshire voters strongly disagree with Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s move to side with Mitch McConnell in blocking any nominee for the Supreme Court until 2017 – and that Ayotte’s decision could cost her come November.

The poll, conducted by Anzalone Liszt Grove Research along with Normington Petts and Associates on behalf of End Citizens United, shows 64 percent of New Hampshire voters want President Obama and the Senate to act now in filling the Supreme Court vacancy.

New Hampshire voters not only want a new justice to be confirmed soon, but are also seeing through Republican arguments to stall on holding hearings.

Fifty-five percent of New Hampshire voters agree that Senators vowing to block any Obama pick are “trying to advance their party’s agenda rather than do what is right for the country.” Only 39 percent agree with the GOP line that those same Senators are “trying to protect the rights of the American people to have a say in the next Supreme Court justice.”

There is also evidence that Ayotte’s choice is damaging her prospects for re-election. Fifty-two percent of New Hampshire voters are less likely to vote for Ayotte because of her stance, compared to just 37 percent who are more likely to back Ayotte when informed of her position.

Looking forward to an eventual nominee, 88 percent of those surveyed believe it is important that the next justice shows a desire to “reduce the influence of special interest money in government.”

The survey was conducted February 22-24, 2016 among 500 likely general election voters and was conducted on both landlines and mobile phones. The results are subject to a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Click here to read the full poll memo.

End Citizens United PAC was established in March 2015 to counter the disastrous effects of Citizens United and reform our campaign finance system. ECU has raised more than $7 million from more than 500,000 contributions, with an average contribution of $14.

Read more on End Citizens United from Roll Call: CampaignFinance Reform PAC Wants to Be a Player in 2016.