NBC has posted results of exit polling in Tuesday’s election that focused on voters in general and specifically their thoughts in races for U.S. Senate and governor won by Tom Cotton and Asa Hutchinson, both Republicans.
Here’s the link to the race for Senate.
Here’s the link to the race for governor.
The numbers should further depress already depressed Democratic partisans.
Such as: The Republicans handily carried the votes of women and 18-29-year-olds, both reservoirs of past Democratic strength.
Party identification is trending in favor of Republicans now, to 33-28, but I don’t believe many of those claiming to be independents. I think they’ve made the switch. The uniform GOP votes in the eight statewide races tell the story. Senate (55); Governor (55); Lt. Gov. (57); Atty gen. (51); Secretary of State (60); Treasurer (56); Auditor (57); Land Commissioner (57). Also, 39 percent of voters though Hillary Clinton would make a good president, but 50 percent felt that way about Mike Huckabee. But there was some ticket splitting. 14 percent of Cotton voters voted for Mike Ross. 9 percent of Pryor voters voted for Asa Hutchinson.
Republicans won at every education level and every income level, except the very poorest and, in Ross’ case, he split $30,000 to $50,000 voters.
The more often a voter went to church, the more likely the voter was to vote Republican.
Barack Obama moved Republican voters, of course. Voters had a lower opinion of Democrats than Republicans (though they had a mixed 46-48 rating). In the Senate race, 40 percent of voters said they voted to express opposition to Obama. The anti-Obama feeling is strongly illustrated in the governor’s race by the question above. The overwhelming Republican vote by the 56 percent who strongly disapprove of the president is a decisive number.
69 percent of all voters opposed same-sex marriage.