Public support for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to join the Supreme Court has ticked up as her confirmation hearings proceed in the Senate.
Morning Consult and Politico surveyed roughly 2,000 registered voters from Oct. 9-11, ending the polling on the eve of Barrett’s first day of hearings in the Senate. The survey found that support for Barret’s confirmation had ticked up slightly from 46% a week ago to 48%, though still within the poll’s 2-point margin of error. The level of opposition to Barrett’s confirmation remained unchanged at 31%.
As Morning Consult reports: “The level of support for Barrett’s nomination, an increase of 11 points since President Donald Trump announced her nomination on Sept. 26, also compares favorably with public sentiment toward Justice Brett Kavanaugh prior to the first day of his confirmation hearings in September 2018. At that time, 37 percent of voters said the Senate should vote to confirm Kavanaugh to the court, compared with 29 percent who said it should vote to deny his nomination.”
The polling is a rebuke to Democratic lawmakers and pundits who have largely attempted to argue that the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should be left open for the winner of the 2020 election to fill.
Barrett sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for the third day in a row. The first day was taken up entirely by members of the committee giving opening statements with little input from Barrett. On Day 2, Barrett fielded questions from senators largely over her judicial philosophy and how she may rule on specific cases. At one point, however, Barrett responded to “caricatures” of her and her family that have spread across the media since her nomination.
“I think what I would like to say in response to that question is that look, I’ve made distinct choices. I’ve decided to pursue a career and have a large family. I have a multi-racial family. Our faith is important to us. All of those things are true, but they are my choices,” Barrett said, responding to a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “In my personal interactions with people, I mean, I have a life brimming with people who have made different choices and I have never tried in my personal life to impose my choices on them. And the same is true professionally.”
Barrett went on to explain why she and her husband, Jesse, decided to subject themselves and their family to the nomination and vetting process despite the “excruciating” toll it was almost certain to take.
“We knew that our lives would be combed over for any negative detail. We knew our faith would be caricatured. We knew our family would be attacked. So we had to decide whether those difficulties would be worth it, because what sane person would go through that if there wasn’t a benefit on the other side,” Barrett said. “The benefit, I think, is that I’m committed to the rule of law and the role of the Supreme Court in dispensing equal justice for all,”
Related: 6 Top Moments From Second Day Of Amy Coney Barrett Confirmation Hearings