ALMOST two-thirds of Republicans oppose the Supreme Court’s nationwide ruling in support of same-sex marriage, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The numbers give hope for conservative presidential candidates who have come out strongly against marriage equality.
Republicans anticipated a major struggle to make opposition to same-sex marriage a winning issue in the November 2016 general election. Over half of Americans support it, according to the online survey.
However, a clear majority of Republicans (63 percent) still think the high court’s landmark decision last month to legalize gay marriage nationwide was wrong.
The opinion could give a boost to gay marriage opponents like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the crowded fight for the Republican Party nomination.
Walker, who is widely expected to declare his candidacy soon, described the Supreme Court ruling as a “grave mistake,” and has called for a constitutional amendment to allow individual states to decide whether to allow gay marriage.
42 percent of Republicans in the poll said same-sex marriage laws should be made “at the state level by referendum,” which only 24 percent of the overall population agree with.
Cruz has vowed to put his opposition to gay marriage “front and center” of his campaign, and has urged some states to ignore the court ruling. Huckabee has also long been a vocal opponent of gay rights.
“Their positions might appeal to the kind of older, conservative Republican who turns out to vote in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest in the 2016 White House race,” said University of Northern Iowa political science professor Christopher Larimer.
“Part of it’s a generational thing,” Larimer said.
Other leading Republican candidates, such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, have expressed their support for traditional marriage, but were less vocal about strongly criticizing the Supreme Court.
Overall, 51 percent of Americans say they support same-sex unions, while 35 percent oppose it. Poll results showed 48 percent of independent voters support gay marriage, making it a difficult road for a conservative Republican to win general election votes on the issue.
The poll was conducted between June 26 and July 8 among 3,632 people. Among all respondents, the gay marriage poll had an overall credibility interval of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, and plus or minus 3.3 percent for Republican respondents. (With reports from Reuters)
