Oregon Poll: Majority Say Protests Violent; Trump Tops Local Leaders in Approval
A poll of Oregon voters released late last week revealed that a majority disapprove of the Black Lives Matter protests in the state, and that President Donald Trump has higher approval than Governor Kate Brown or Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.
The poll, conducted online by non-partisan DHM Research among 502 respondents from Sep. 3 to 8, showed that nearly two-thirds of Oregon voters disapproved of the protests in Portland, which stretched beyond 100 straight nights last week.
Contrary to claims by Democrats — including former Vice President Joe Biden — that the protests have been mostly peaceful, a majority of Oregon voters (56%) believe that the protests in the state have been “mostly violent,” the poll discovered.
A similar majority (55%) felt that the word “riot” should be used to describe the protests, rather than “protest” (37%). And 42% believed that “police in Portland have not used enough force,” compared to 29% who thought police had used too much.
Only 28% of those polled thought the Portland protests were helpful to black people; however, a majority (52%) of young people (18-29) and people of color (51%) were convinced that the protests were, in fact, helpful.
Voters were generally sour on all elected leaders: “Nearly six in 10 Oregon voters disapprove of how President Donald Trump (59%), Governor Kate Brown (57%), and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (58%) are responding to the ongoing protests.” However, 39% approved of Trump’s response, compared to 37% for Brown and 30% for Wheeler — though the difference between Trump and Brown was within the poll’s 4.4% margin of error.
While Trump had the highest level of strong disapproval (51%), he also had the highest level of strong approval (25%).
A separate poll last week showed that a large majority of voters in Portland itself disapproved of Wheeler.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.