A conviction in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump would boost his support among key swing state voters, a Telegraph/Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll recently found, contradicting a narrative that a potential Trump conviction would somehow boost President Joe Biden’s flagging poll numbers.
The poll sampled voters in seven swing states.
- In Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, a greater number of voters said a Trump conviction would make them more likely than not to vote for Trump.
- Thirty-five percent of voters in Georgia said a Trump conviction would increase their chances of voting for the former president. Only 27 percent said a Trump conviction would cause them to support him less.
- Polling numbers in Arizona and Pennsylvania showed that a potential conviction would either produce no significant impact or slightly hurt Trump. Arizona voters were evenly split. Pennsylvania voters said a conviction would make them support Trump “slightly less.”
“Our polling makes it clear that American voters want an election that is decided by themselves, not by the courts,” Philip van Scheltinga, director of research at Redfield & Wilton Strategies, told the Telegraph.
“It is not that surprising that more voters say they’d be more likely to vote for Trump if he is convicted, given what has been happening over the last several years,” he said. “For most Americans, this case is yet another instance of the many fraught battles between Trump and his opponents.”
“The investigations into Trump helped secure his nomination, by sucking the air out of other campaigns, and making it difficult to criticise him when he was being seen as being attacked,” he added. “Now, they might just propel him into the White House.”
The survey comes as Michael Cohen is expected to finally take the stand on Monday, the Associated Press reported:
The long-anticipated testimony from Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer would follow a breathtaking buildup by prosecutors of a case that ultimately hinges on record-keeping. Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records to cover up hush money payments that Cohen made as part of efforts to buy and bury stories that might hurt the former president’s 2016 campaign.
Text messages, audio recordings, notes and more have all been introduced or shown to jurors in recent weeks to illustrate what prosecutors say was a scheme to illegally influence the election that year. And sometimes dramatic testimony from witnesses that included former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, ex-Trump staffers and porn actor Stormy Daniels added to the intrigue.
The prosecution could wrap its case this week after telling the judge on Friday that they expected to call just two more witnesses.
“I’m innocent,” Trump told reporters before entering the courtroom. “It’s a political witch hunt. And nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
The Telegraph did not immediately disclose the poll’s sample size or margin of error.
Related–WATCH: “We Love Trump!” NYC Crowds Cheer as Trump Visits Harlem Bodega After Second Day of Trial
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.