IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

NBC News/WSJ Poll: Just 12% in Key Trump Counties Back GOP Health Care Effort

A new NBC/WSJ poll finds that only a quarter of Trump voters in those counties think the GOP health care bill is a good idea.
Hundreds of activists and allies from the newly-formed anti-
Hundreds of activists and allies from the newly-formed anti-Trump group Rise & Resist staged a peaceful protest at Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City, to fight against the radical changes to the American healthcare system proposed by the Trump Administration and Republicans.Erik McGregor / Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Just 12 percent of Americans living in the counties that fueled Donald Trump's win in the 2016 presidential election support the Republican Party's efforts on health care, according to results from the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of these "Trump counties."

Asked their views on the health care legislation passed by the House of Representatives in May and backed by President Trump, 12 percent of the respondents in these counties — consisting of Republicans, Democrats and independents — called the bill a good idea, while 41 percent said it was a bad idea. Forty-seven percent had no opinion or say they’re not sure.

Even among Trump voters in these counties, only 25 percent believe the House GOP health care bill is a good idea, 16 percent think it’s a bad idea and 59 percent have no opinion or are unsure.

That’s compared with 75 percent of Hillary Clinton voters in these counties, who say the legislation is a bad idea, zero percent who say it’s a good idea and 26 percent who have no opinion or are unsure.

Last month’s national NBC/WSJ poll found that 16 percent of all Americans called the House bill a good idea, versus 48 percent who see it as a bad idea.

“It was kind of like they were walking a plank that they knew they were going to fall off from,” Democratic pollster Fred Yang said of Republican lawmakers who voted for this legislation. Yang and his firm Hart Research Associates conducted this NBC/WSJ poll with the GOP polling firm Public Opinion Strategies.

Senate Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act collapsed Monday night, while another plan — a simple repeal of Obamacare with no replacement — was effectively killed Tuesday when three senators came out against it.

This NBC/WSJ poll's sample was taken from 439 counties in 16 states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin — that either flipped from President Barack Obama to Trump, or where Trump greatly outpaced Mitt Romney's performance in 2012.

And there’s little difference in views of the GOP health care effort in these two different kinds of Trump counties.

In the “surge” counties, 13 percent of adults think the House legislation is a good idea.

And in the “flip” counties, just 12 percent think the bill is a good idea.

The rest of this NBC/WSJ poll – which was conducted July 8-12 of 600 adults in these counties, and has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 4.0 percentage points – will be released Wednesday morning.

In "Flip" counties, 342 interviews were conducted, which has a margin of error of plus-minus 5.3 percentage points. And in "Surge" counties, 258 interviews were conducted, and the margin of error there is plus-minus 6.1 percentage points.