A new poll from Marist suggests a little under half of white evangelicals don’t consider the allegations of sexual assault against Republican Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh to be disqualifying, even if they turn out to be legitimate.
A Marist poll conducted between September 22 and 24 asked a thousand white evangelical respondents how they felt about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party. Predictably, partisan politics ruled the day, with 12 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Republicans saying they would still support Kavanaugh even if the allegations were true.
Meanwhile, 36 percent of white evangelicals said they would not support Kavanaugh if the allegations were proved true, and sixteen percent did not have an answer.
A number of prominent white evangelicals have stood by Kavanaugh throughout the troubling allegations made by both Blasey Ford, and a number of other women who have come forward with their own stories. Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. sent 300 of his women students to Washington D.C. to express their support for Kavanaugh.
Prominent evangelical leader Franklin Graham also dismissed the severity of Blasey Ford’s accusation, saying that “She said no and he respected it and walked away.” Blasey Ford herself has contended that she escaped from underneath Kavanaugh after a friend jumped on top of him and she fled to the bathroom.
