50% of Minnesotans do not want Franken to be ousted

December 30, 2017

Fully 50% of Minnesota voters now think that Democratic Senator Al Franken should not resign for sexual misconduct, compared with 42% who are ready to say goodbye, based on results of a survey of 671 state voters conducted by Public Policy Polling released on December 28. The research, conducted during the same week, was done on behalf of Strategic Consulting Group.

Interesting enough, Franken’s continued popularity is being driven especially by women—57% of whom like the job he’s doing (compared to 37% who don’t). By contrast Donald Trump stands at 40/58 with women in the state.

There is little appetite among Democratic voters at the state level for Franken to go, the pollsters say, with 71% of voters of his own party opposing his departure. A majority of Independents (52%) also think he should not resign, with just 41% favoring his exit.

Franken remains well above-average in popularity for a Senator,the researchers say—with 53% of voters approving of the job he’s doing, as opposed to 42% who say they disapprove.

Survey respondents said they do not like how the process with Franken’s resignation has played out. Sixty percent—including 79% of Democrats and 61% of Independents— told PPP that they think the Senate Ethics Committee should have completed its investigation  before any decision was made about Franken’s future, while only 35% think he should resign immediately.

Beyond that 76% of Minnesota voters think their voices should have been more important in determining whether Franken stayed in the Senate or not, as opposed to only 12% who think that should have been determined more by his fellow Senators in Washington.

Research contact: information@publicpolicypolling.com