Washington • Sen. Mitt Romney’s approval rating nationally among Republicans has plunged while he’s soaring with Democrats, according to a new poll reflecting the impact of the Utah Republican’s vote to convict President Donald Trump of abuse of power.
Overall, Romney’s favorability remains at 39% nationally, the same as a year ago but largely because of a reversal of support between Republicans and Democrats, a Gallup survey finds.
Most Democrats, 56%, approve of Romney while 23% of Republicans do so, the poll shows.
That’s a decrease among Republicans of 22 percentage points in a year, but it’s a growth of 19 points among Democrats.
Romney’s office declined to comment Tuesday.
Romney, who was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has seen his fortunes among his party members fall in recent months after he criticized Trump’s actions with Ukraine — actions that later were at the center of the impeachment proceedings. While the House impeached the president, the Senate acquitted Trump with Romney as the sole Republican to support removing him from office.
The Gallup survey matches a swing of support with regard to Romney found by another poll shortly after the Feb. 5 vote in the Senate on the impeachment charges.
That Morning Consult/Politico poll showed half of registered voters approved of Romney’s decision to vote guilty on one of the two charges against the president while 39% disapproved and 10% didn’t know or didn’t have an opinion.
Some 84% of Democrats backed Romney’s vote while 15% of Republicans agreed. About 76% of Romney’s fellow GOP members opposed his decision.
The Gallup poll, conducted Feb. 17-28 of 1,020 U.S. adults, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
