The unmitigated disaster that was the Republican Congress's handling of Trumpcare has been brought into sharp relief by two new polls from PPP in Arizona and Nevada looking at approval ratings for those states' senators, both of whom are up for re-election in 2018. In one word: Ouch.
Nevada's Dean Heller, who apparently has an electoral death wish. After his "principled" stand with his governor against Trumpcare, Heller caved to Trump and the big money Republicans in his state. And he's paying the price.
A poll released Tuesday by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling (PPP), which was sponsored by the pro-Obamacare group Save My Care, found that only 22 percent of Nevada voters approve of Heller’s job performance, compared with 55 percent who disapprove and 23 percent who are unsure.
A similar survey fielded by the same group last week showed Heller at 29 percent approval.
A seven-point drop in one week is really, really not good news for the most vulnerable senator from either party running in 2018. Fifty percent of voters say they'd vote for his unnamed Democratic challenger if the election were held today. For any politician, an unnamed opponent hitting 50 percent is a disaster. For this particular politician, it is likely to be his doom.
In Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff (the wanna-be maverick who couldn't) Flake has an 18 percent approval rating. Yes, 18. Which, if he wasn't an incumbent and people didn't know who he was would be pretty much fine. But the fact that 62 percent disapprove and only 19 percent are unsure, well, that's not good for him. At all. What's more, an unknown Democratic challenger would beat him if the election were held today, 47-31. That's before PPP started in asking about Trumpcare, which is not popular there, though more popular than in the country as a whole, 55 percent against, 31 percent for.
But when it comes to Flake's vote for it, the likely to vote against Flake percentage rises to 52. After a series of questions about attitudes toward what was in the Trumpcare bill—all of which is massively unpopular—PPP asked again about a match-up against and unknown Democrat, and the Democrat gains two points—49-30. And the likely to vote against Flake percentage ticks up to 55 percent. This is from a survey group that voted for Trump over Clinton by 5 points, 47-42. Again, ouch.
Let's help make it even more painful for them!
Please give $1 to each of our Senate funds so that Republican senators—especially Heller and Flake—know there'll be a price to pay for their votes to repeal health care.