Poll: Almost half of GOP voters say Senate should hold SCOTUS hearings

Almost half of Republican voters say the Senate should hold hearings on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, a new Morning Consult poll found Friday.

{mosads}The survey, which was conducted in the days following Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, found that 43 percent of GOP voters disagree with Senate Republicans’ vow to not hold hearings for the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s proposed replacement.

Thirty-four percent said there should be no hearings, and 23 percent said they didn’t know or had no opinion.

Among all voters, 48 percent said the Senate Judiciary Committee should hold hearings for the nominee. The figure goes up to 56 percent among Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called for Scalia’s replacement to be nominated by the next president, and has vowed to not even meet with Garland.

The poll found that just 41 percent of all voters agree with him, but 74 percent of GOP voters do.

Among Democratic voters, 72 percent say Obama is entitled to select the nominee.

There is a similar partisan split on whether Garland should be confirmed. Just 19 percent of Republican voters think he should be confirmed, compared with 59 percent of Democrats. And only 28 percent of independents think he should be confirmed.

Among all voters, just 37 percent want the Garland confirmed.

The poll surveyed 2,011 registered voters from March 16-18. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.