Trump’s Approval Drops Below 50 Percent –

By Glynn Wilson —

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democrat Doug Jones has pulled even with Republican and former judge Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate campaign in Alabama with less than two months to go before the special election, and even President Donald Trump’s reputation is suffering in the Deep South red state.

U.S. Senate Candidate Doug Jones: Campaign photo from Facebook

While Alabama is being characterized nationally as an overwhelmingly pro-Trump state, the latest survey shows Trump’s approval dropping below 50 percent to 48 percent, with 47 percent saying they view him unfavorably.

The Fox News poll, which appears to be legitimate with an adequate sample size and a margin of error of only 3.5 percent, found 42 percent of registered voters are pulling for Jones in the Senate race, while 42 percent say they support Moore. Eleven percent said they were undecided when the poll was conducted, October 14-16. The election will be December 12.

“This race exemplifies the difficulty the Republican Party has now,” Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson, said on the Fox News website. “There is an element of the party that has had it with the establishment, had it with politics as usual, had it with political correctness. The fissure within the party means divisive primaries, controversial candidates, and hard choices for GOP voters once the general election rolls around.”

Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore pulls out a gun at a campaign rally on Monday, Sept. 25: Facebook

The Senate race, which has been the subject of much discussion and controversy in the nation’s capitol, also appears to be generating far more than the average interest in Alabama. A majority, 53 percent, said they were “extremely” or “very” interested in the campaign, and another 36 percent said they were “somewhat” interested.

That means the campaign is of interest to 89 percent of the voting population of more than 3 million people, or 3,330,802 to be exact.

Also of interest, while 35 percent of those who said they would vote for Jones identified as Democrats, 32 percent said they were voting to oppose the controversial judge Moore, who has been removed from office as Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court twice for not following the law.

Moore’s supporters were made up of 41 percent of loyal Republicans, but 20 percent said they were voting based on “Christian values/beliefs.”

So Jones has pulled even with Moore in a poll where 47 percent of those interviewed identified as Republicans, 37 percent were Democrats, and 16 percent were independents.

This race now really is too close to call, with less then two months to go, but the results would tend to favor Jones, who appears to be surging in the final weeks. Previous polls showed Moore up by 6-8 points.

Turnout will determine the outcome. Only 18 percent of registered voters turned out for the August 15 primary. The low turnout favored Moore and allowed him to defeat Luther Strange in the runoff in September.

Will Moore’s 20 percent of religious right voters turn out in great numbers? Or will the 32-35 percent of Jones supporters outnumber them?

See the raw survey results here.