What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending September 29, 2018

The Senate Judiciary Committee Friday afternoon voted 11-10,  strictly along partisan lines, to approve for full Senate action Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the United States Supreme Court. 

However, Arizona Senator Jeff  Flake, a Republican, said he will not vote for Judge Kavanaugh unless there is a week's delay on the full Senate vote to allow for an FBI investigation of Christine Ford's sexual assault allegations against him. Kavanaugh adamantly denies the allegations over which America is a nation evenly divided against itself. 

As America becomes more familiar with Kavanaugh, voters are developing strong opinions about the Supreme Court nominee, but their willingness to vote for senators who support him hasn’t wavered.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insists the U.S. Senate will vote on the  Kavanaugh nomination, and most voters still support that decision. There’s also only slightly less urgency in their minds about getting the job done.

Judge Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation has been top news for weeks, and voters don’t think the media is trying to do him any favors. 

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President Trump will be in West Virginia tonight for a second campaign rally for state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's bid for the U.S. Senate.

Earlier in the week President Trump reinforced his “America First” doctrine in a rejection of globalism. Nonetheless, voters still to support our continued involvement in the UN, and a growing number say the United States should continue to be the organization’s biggest benefactor.

While Trump's signature rallying cry has been “Make America Great Again,” nearly two years into Trump's presidency, almost half of U.S. voters think more needs to be done.

While the Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings have dominated news this week, the Republican-led Congress has produced yet another big spending bill that fails to fund President Trump's border wall even though a sizable majority of GOP voters supports the project.

With the new spending bill heading through Congress once again to keep the government operating, most voters don’t see significant government spending cuts coming anytime soon, even though they think those cuts are good for the economy. 

Most voters also think any new spending should be offset by cuts in other areas of the budget. 

In other surveys last week:

-- Several high-profile actors, politicians and journalists have been accused of sexual wrongdoing in the wake of the #MeToo movement. But most voters think these public figures aren’t getting a fair shake by the media. 

-- The newly legalized marijuana industry in California is trying to discourage the use of terms like “pot” and “stoner” because they think they carry a negative connotation, and even pot smokers tend to agree. 

-- The Democratic lead over Republicans has narrowed on this week's Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot. 

-- Forty-two percent (42%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction. 

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Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.