A new U.S. Chamber poll finds that while 78% of West Virginia voters are pessimistic about the national environment, 54% of voters still view Senator Manchin favorably and 56% oppose a new, smaller version of a Biden social spending plan.
North Star Opinion Research conducted the poll and released the findings to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the letter posted below.
TO: U.S. Chamber of Commerce
FROM: Jon McHenry and Dan Judy
DATE: May 10, 2022
RE: West Virginia Voters’ Views of Senator Manchin and New Spending
Our firm conducted a survey of 500 registered voters in West Virginia April 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20, 2022. While these voters are pessimistic about the national environment, they still support
Senator Joe Manchin’s legislative efforts, but remain solidly opposed to any new federal spending bill.
Key findings are:
- West Virginia voters say the country is off on the wrong track by a four-to-one margin. The 19 percent right direction/78 percent wrong track result we see in West Virginia is substantially worse than Real Clear Politics’ average of 28 to 65 percent as of April 21, the most comparable date available.
- Despite that pessimistic judgement for the nation, West Virginia voters view Senator Manchin favorably. These voters give Manchin a 54 to 39 percent favorable to unfavorable rating. Similarly, voters approve of Manchin’s job performance by a 57 to 39 percent margin.
- As of now, voters continue to say that Joe Manchin “resists the extremes of both parties and has improved legislation for West Virginia by taking an independent position on issues.” As Congress considered the Build Back Better bill last fall and into winter, West Virginia voters agreed with this statement about Joe Manchin by a 57 to 37 percent margin; they still agree by a 57 to 40 percent margin now.
- West Virginia voters oppose Joe Manchin supporting a “new, smaller version of a Biden social spending plan.” When asked if they supported or opposed Senator Manchin supporting “a new, smaller version of a Biden social spending plan that would be focused on climate programs, prescription drug reform, and rolling back the Trump tax cuts,” they oppose it by a wide margin, 56 to 38 percent.
Methodology
This survey of 500 registered voters was conducted by telephone using live interviewers, with 67 percent of the interviews completed on cell phones. Respondents were selected randomly from a list of registered voters statewide, with quotas set for age, gender, and county. The margin of error for the full sample is ±4.38 percent.
