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GOP Poll Says Dems Losing Shutdown Fight in Cartwright Seat

Are red district Dems running into the 2020 wall or is it just another internal poll?

A new poll released Monday on behalf of the Republican National Committee, from Public Opinion Strategies shows Rep. Matt Cartwright’s (D-Lackawanna) as one of 10 Democrats representing districts that President Donald Trump won with numbers showing the President having the upper hand over the recent government shutdown dispute.

Trump won the current configuration of the 8th Congressional District in the state by close to 10 points in 2016. In Cartwright’s 2018 reelection bid, he bested Republican John Chrin by 9 points.

The Public Opinion Strategies survey of 800 registered voters shows the President Trump’s message on border security and some other policies to be popular in these districts.

The polling does not specify each district’s statistics, so it is not clear what the voters of Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District exactly feel, but the polling includes the average of the 10 districts polled.

Just over half of those polled (52%) believe that the “current situation at the border between the United States and Mexico represent a national security threat to the US.” 53% of those polled support building a border wall or “barrier to improve security between the U.S. and Mexico,” while 43% oppose that idea.

61% approve of the President’s position on border security, while 35% polled disapprove.

The president’s policies also remain more popular than his own job approval rating in this poll. Trump holds a 1 net approval rating, 49-48, of registered voters polled, while 54% approve of his policies with 43% disapproving.

The polling also indicates that the Democrats missed their chance on the issue of dreamers.

50% polled believe the Democrats should have accepted Trump’s offer of three years of protection for dreamers in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding a border, while 43% did not believe the Democrats should have accepted that offer.

41% believe that Trump has been “more open to compromise on this issue” than Congressional Democrats. Only 34% polled believe that Congressional Democrats have been more open to compromise on this issue.

Cartwright’s most recent challenger, John Chrin, often hit him on border security and wall funding during the 2018 campaign, while the incumbent Democrat slammed his opponent on residency.

Cartwright officially began his fourth term in Congress earlier this month.

Cartwright was selected as one of three Democrats to serve as co-chairs on the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee for this session. He is the only Democrat chair on the committee that helps shape the party’s message to represent a district that went to Trump in 2016.

Cartwight’s office did not immediately respond to comment for this story of the newly release polling.

The margin of error for the poll is + 3.46%.

The full memo can be found here.

9 Responses

  1. Politic PA’s credibility is severely challenged by publishing this article which is clearly slanted by hyping a bogus Republican poll. Shame on you!!

  2. YOU ARE WRONG CONGRESSMAN CARTWRIGHT WON IN 2016 WHEN TRUMP WAS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AND IN 2018 WHEN HE WAS PRESIDENT.THE VOTERS LIKE HIM REGUARDLESS OF ADFVERSARFIAL COMMENTS ABOUT HIM BUYN YHE REPUBLICAN MEDIA

  3. Be more discerning about what you print–or at least add more analysis as to the validity or lack thereof

  4. This poll includes the outlier MN-7, which Trump won by 30.8%. Shouldn’t have included it, skews the poll way conservative. Also, with only 80 surveys in each district, the MOE in any particular district is something like 25%. What are we trying to achieve with this?

  5. This poll is not broken down by each of the 10 districts so the headline may not be correct as to PA 8. Also appears that all the Dems are up by double digits (35-20) on the approve/disapprove question, but agian not broken out as to each district. Nor does it tell us where the issue stands in importance versus other issues, e.g. health insurance, college costs, reversing the tax cut for billionaires. etc

  6. What planet are we living on here? So, there is a poll conducted by Republicans telling them what they want to hear which is that bogus border blabber about a wall is front and center in the 8th Congressional District. Maybe the wall is important to Scott Wagner or maybe the wall counts with Speaker Turzai but the reality is that like the very bogus issue (and it was extremely bogus) of “sanctuary cities” the issue of “the wall” is not going to win this district for R’s. Multimillionaire Chrin could not win pumping millions into the district over “sanctuary cities” and if he tries again using “the wall” Chirin will flat on his face.

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