Josh Hawley Faces 'Intensely Negative Sentiment' in Missouri, Poll Finds

Missourians are pretty evenly split on their opinions of Senator Josh Hawley. Just as many, if not more, voters view him unfavorably as favorably, according to a copy of a memo from Change Research obtained by the RFT.

The San Francisco-based polling firm compiled data from 1,267 Missouri voters, 43 percent of whom said they viewed the Republican senator unfavorably. Forty-two percent said they viewed him favorably.

That's even with the poll being weighted to account for 2020 presidential votes. (Its stated margin of error is 3 percent.) In other words, measuring the same Missouri voters who gave then-President Trump 56.8 percent of the vote, just 42 percent like Hawley.

"Intensely negative sentiment is building towards the Senator as 39 percent hold strongly unfavorable views of him compared to just 26 percent who are strongly favorable," the memo reads.

Not surprisingly, only 1 percent of Democrats in the poll rated Hawley favorably. However, the poll also found that 54 percent of Independents and 24 percent of Republicans do not view him favorably either.

"Hawley is particularly unpopular with women overall, college graduates, in the St. Louis and Kansas City metro areas, young voters, Independents, and non white voters," the memo says.

St. Louis City is the strongest base of Hawley disdain in the state, where he is viewed favorably by only 29 percent of respondents. In St. Louis County, that number rises to 42 percent. In the Kansas City metropolitan area, 31 percent of respondents view the senator favorably.

According to the poll, Hawley's strongest support is in southeast Missouri, where 56 percent of respondents gave Hawley a favorable rating, as opposed to 24 percent who said they viewed him unfavorably.

The poll was conducted online from January 26-31. According to the memo, the results from the 1,267 sample size were adjusted for "age, gender, education, ethnicity, region, and 2020 presidential vote to reflect the distribution of voters statewide."

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