https://morningconsult.com/2020/01/16/impeachment-trial-set-to-put-vulnerable-senate-republicans-in-a-familiar-bind/ With a 52 percent disapproval rating, Susan Collins (R-Maine) is now the most unpopular senator in the country.
Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) dipped to 3 points underwater while Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) saw negligible movement.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), not up for re-election this year, posted a 9-point slide in net approval, the largest of the quarter.
The Senate’s impeachment trial is set to provide a familiar political dilemma for the chamber’s most vulnerable Republicans: Cross President Donald Trump and face the wrath of his ardent base, or side with him and alienate the broader coalition in their states, where the president is unpopular.
GOP strategists say that barring any major surprises, it’s a relatively easy decision, with vulnerable Republicans armed with the option of showing independence on procedural votes in the Senate trial. An acquittal vote is likely to preclude a primary challenge, and senators can take their chances that the issue will be largely off voters’ radars in 11 months.
Nonetheless, Morning Consult’s latest Senator Approval Rankings, compiled from nearly 500,000 survey interviews conducted among registered voters in all 50 states during the final three months of 2019, found a small needle for the GOP to thread over the next several weeks. All five of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans head into the trial with voters in their states either souring on their job performance or with perceptions of the president threatening to pull them further down.
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