Vanderbilt Poll: Voters Want Forrest Bust Gone

The latest edition of the Vanderbilt Poll, released Tuesday morning, includes expected findings — like the fact that Republican Gov. Bill Lee is the state’s most popular politician, like his predecessor Gov. Bill Haslam, with an approval rating of 62 percent.

Both Republican senators — Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn — fell well short of 50 percent in the newest survey, which targeted 1,000 registered voters at the end of November and beginning of December. President Donald Trump received 50-percent approval, consistent with past surveys but featuring softening support in the suburbs.

Some of Vanderbilt’s findings were less predictable, though.

More than three-quarters of Tennessee voters, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, believe the bust of Confederate officer and slave trader Nathan Bedford Forrest should be removed from its state Capitol alcove. Most Republicans in power have been reluctant to support removing the bust, which has drawn protestors since it was first displayed in the 1970s. Forty-seven percent of those polled said the bust should move to a museum, while 29 percent said it should not be displayed at all.

While Tennessee’s congressional Republicans have been full-throated in their support of Trump as House impeachment proceedings continue, Tennessee voters’ thoughts are more nuanced. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed said they believe Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden was “improper,” while 35 percent believe he should be removed from office for it.

Again straying from the consensus among the state legislature’s majority Republicans, most people Vanderbilt polled agreed that guns should not be easier to buy. Nearly 90 percent of voters approve of background checks at gun shows and for private gun sales, and the same overwhelming amount support bans for people with certain mental health problems. A slim majority of voters support an assault-weapons ban.

“The most compelling thing about our findings on gun policy is that opinions haven’t really changed since we began asking about them in 2015,” says poll co-director Josh Clinton. “These are durable results.”

One of Lee’s signature accomplishments from his first year in office remains a mystery to most voters. Lee, with the support of state legislature Republicans, is asking the federal government to block grant Tennessee’s billions of dollars in Medicaid funding. Nearly 60 percent of voters said they didn’t know enough about the proposal to have an opinion.