GOP Touts Poll They Commissioned to Argue the Party Can Make 2022 About ‘Issues’ — But Survey Didn’t Ask About Trump

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) touted the results of a recent poll commissioned by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the Republican Governors’ Association (RGA) to claim that Republicans would be able to successfully make the 2022 elections about “issues,” but admitted that the survey didn’t ask key questions about former President Donald Trump.

Trump still wields enormous influence over the Republican base, from his ongoing false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, to the weight of his endorsements in primaries, to his continued popularity in polls as one of the frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.

That influence is a double-edged sword, however, because as much as Trump may fire up elements of the GOP faithful, he also motivates liberal and moderate voters against him.

So when NRSC chair Scott, joined by his counterpart at the RGA, Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ), announced that President Joe Biden’s “honeymoon is over” on a media call earlier today, confidently predicting that issues would win the 2022 election for his party, it seemed a little odd that Trump was virtually nonexistent in their polling.

Some of the data from the poll has been posted for review in a memorandum here. The exact wording of all the survey questions and the crosstabs of the results are not included, but the memo does indicate that the poll was conducted from June 1 to 3, 2021 of 1,200 likely voters, selected from 26 battleground states that the NRSC/RGA designated as Red (AK, AR, FL, ID, KS, MO, OH, OK, SC, SD), Purple (AZ, GA, IA, ME, NC, NH, NV, PA, WI), and Blue (CO, CT, HI, IL, MD, MN, VT).

It should be noted, too, that the polling memo does not clarify the partisan breakdown of poll respondents, nor how many came from which states.

As reported by Florida Politics, Scott’s “sharp rhetoric” was “dulled” when he was questioned about Trump by reporters, including being asked about Trump endorsing in GOP primaries — sometimes against Republican incumbents, as he has done with Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) opponent, Kelly Tshibaka.

Trump’s lack of incumbent loyalty, of course, goes against the entire raison d’être for both the NRSC and RGA. But Scott demurred, not willing to risk riling up the base with even the mildest criticism or hesitation regarding the former president.

“Our time is focused on defining the Democrats,” was Scott’s reply when asked about the Murkowski-Tshibaka race.

“We didn’t do any polling on it,” admitted Scott regarding a potential Trump effect on these battleground senate and gubernatorial races, adding that he believed 2022 was “going to be about issues.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!