Beacon poll: only 12% of Tennesseans ‘strongly approve’ of state legislature

Just 12% of Tennesseans strongly approve of the Republican-dominated state legislature, according to a statewide poll released Thursday by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a conservative leaning think-tank.

The poll is the first of a series Beacon plans to conduct quarterly, spokesperson Mark Cunningham told The Tennessean. It surveyed more than 1,100 Tennesseans, of whom about 450 identified as Republicans, 350 identified as Democrats, and 320 identified as independents.

“With a lack of consistent and reliable polling in the state, we are happy to offer a transparent and unbiased look at what Tennesseans really think,” Cunningham said. “This poll is all about finding where Tennesseans really are and what issues they care most about.”

Polling was conducted by Targoz Market Research between June 14-22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.87 percentage points. No questions on gun reform or the Second Amendment were included in this particular poll.

Here are some key takeaways:

Only 12% of Tennesseans strongly approve of the state legislature

Approval of the Republican supermajority legislature is low across the state following a session during which lawmakers outlawed gender transition surgeries for transgender youth, and adjourned without voting on a gun reform proposal following a deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.

Now, more Tennesseans strongly disapprove of the legislature (14%) than strongly approve (12%) of it.

Approval is higher among Republicans, with 65% of poll respondents somewhat or strongly approving, and 11% disapproving. Among Democrats, 31% approve and 51% disapprove.

Approval split on Jones, Pearson expulsions

Tennesseans are split on whether GOP lawmakers made the right decision in April in voting to expel Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville and Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, from the state House after they broke House rules and led a gun control protest from the chamber floor.

According to the poll, 39% approved of the expulsion votes, another 39% disapproved, and 23% were neutral or unsure. Nearly a quarter of Democrats polled supported expulsion, with 23% supportive. Among Republicans, 61% approved of the expulsion votes.

22% of Tennessee Democrats undecided on the 2024 presidential primary

President Joe Biden is poised to win the Democratic primary in Tennessee, but 22% of Tennessee Democrats remain undecided on who they will support. Still, 66% say they will vote for the president, while 8% support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 3% support Marianne Williamson, and 2% say someone else.

Biden is most popular in Middle Tennessee, where he has 77% support in the Democratic primary, and least popular in East Tennessee, where only 44% of Democrats say they would support the president. In East Tennessee, 39% of voters are undecided on the Democratic primary.

Of independents polled on the Democratic primary, 46% said they were undecided.

Republicans are split on Trump indictment, say they’d vote for him anyway

Of respondents who identified as Republican, 19% said they approve of the decision to indict former president Donald Trump, while 69% say they disapproved of the indictment. Of total respondents, 43% said they approved of indictment.

Trump faces federal charges over his handling of classified documents after he left office.

Despite indictment, Republicans support Trump over DeSantis by wide margin

Even though he’s indicted, Tennessee Republicans still strongly support Trump, with 58% of Republicans saying they would support him in the 2024 Republican primary.

Meanwhile, 13% say they would vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 9% support former Vice President Mike Pence, and 1% support South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott. Other candidates, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Larry Elder, Asa Hutchinson, and Doug Burgum, earned 1% support or less.

Pairing Biden against Trump, 54% of respondents said they would support Trump, while 34% would back Biden, and 11% were undecided.

Pairing DeSantis against Biden, 52% supported DeSantis, and 36% supported Biden, while 11% were undecided.

“These primary results reflect what we've seen in national polls for months, that a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is the most likely scenario in 2024,” Cunningham said.

38% say they avoid or cannot afford to see a doctor

A significant number of Tennesseans say high costs prevent them from seeking medical care. Asked whether they avoid or cannot afford to see a doctor “out of concern for the cost of potential diagnosis and treatment,” 38% of poll respondents agreed.

Concern over health care costs was highest in West Tennessee, where 45% of respondents said they could not afford or avoid seeking health care.

61% of Democrats support expanding school choice vouchers to all counties

Tennesseans want to see more educational options available, including expanding Gov. Bill Lee’s school choice vouchers program to all counties in the state, according to the poll.

No less than 69% of Tennesseans from both parties support expanding Education Savings Accounts to all counties in the state, including 61% of Democrats. Currently, the program is only authorized to operate in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties. Only 17% of respondents opposed expanding the program to all counties.

Most Tennesseans would like to see more charter schools in their county, with 64% respondents supporting, and 23% opposing.

When asked if more public and private options are needed in K-12 education “because kids are different and one-size-fits all learning environment doesn’t work for all kids,”  77% of respondents agreed.

22% of Bud Light drinkers in Tennessee say they’ve boycotted the brand

Both Republicans (46%) and Democrats (34%) say they have boycotted products because of conflicts with their values or beliefs in the past year.

Of respondents who said they have consumed Bud Light beer in the past, 22% said they have boycotted the brand because of a recent marketing campaign that featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. More than half of those who said they had stopped drinking Bud Light because of the campaign said they would not consider drinking the beer again in the future.

56% support a nationwide ban of TikTok

Amid concern over social media platform TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, 56% of respondents said they would support a nationwide ban of the app on phones and devices. Of those, 63% of Republican respondents support a ban, and 47% of Democrats support banning the app. Just 25% of respondents say they don’t want to ban the app.

Reach reporter Vivian Jones at vjones@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Beacon poll: only 12% of Tennesseans ‘strongly approve’ of state legislature