Poll Finds Thomas’ Support Stable

The first week of Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas had little apparent impact on the American public’s support for his confirmation. A new Gallup Poll, conducted after the first week of the confirmation hearings, shows that Americans favor his nomination by a 54%-25% margin, not significantly different from a poll conducted before the hearings began.

Black support for Thomas’ nomination continues to be no different from white support.

Although Thomas’ position on abortion, or lack thereof, creates some negative reaction, there is general agreement that his legal and personal qualifications are reasons to support his nomination.

Forty-three percent say that it is at least somewhat likely that Thomas, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, will vote to overturn the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion. A third say it is not likely, with 25% having no opinion.

The results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,216 adults, conducted Sept. 13-15. One can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects could be plus or minus 3 percentage points. Question wording might also introduce error or bias into the findings.