Winthrop Poll surveys removal of Confederate Flag from State House

Two-thirds of South Carolina residents surveyed in the Winthrop Poll thought that South Carolina Legislatures made the right decision to remove the confederate flag.

A Georgia licence plate featuring the Confederate battle flag was on sale again on Wednesday after the state ended a temporary hold on the specialty plates in response to the June massacre of nine black churchgoers in South Carolina. Democrats are more united, with 83 percent supporting the decision to remove the flag and 81 percent saying it should no longer fly at the state house.

Winthrop surveyed 963 South Carolinians by landline and cell phones between September 20-27 for the poll.

There is still a clear divide on what the Confederate Flag stands for: 40 percent say it’s a symbol of racial conflict while 47 percent say it’s a symbol of Southern pride. “Even folks who personally would prefer it was flying, even they say it was the right choice to bring it down”, Huffmon said. Meanwhile, congress’ approval rating is at 12% and it continues to slide.

That 51 percent of participants said that generations of slavery and discrimination do not make it difficult or somewhat difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class, while 45% said it makes it somewhat or strongly difficult.

Respondents gave Governor Nikki Haley a 55 percent approval rating.

Regarding the economy, one-fourth of those surveyed said the nation is headed in the right direction. The senator who is running for President has a 40 percent approval rating in his home state. Results which use all respondents have a margin of error of approximately +/- 3.2 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. Those surveyed said the two most important issues facing the Palmetto State are education and jobs/unemployment (tied at 13.3%), followed by racism (8%) and moral values (5.4%).

The state’s General Assembly received a stamp of approval from 45 percent of respondents.

Scott has been hosting a series of town hall meetings across the state, providing a forum for GOP presidential candidates to introduce themselves to the first-in-the-South primary voters of South Carolina. “They also were for the rule of law and believed that probate judges and clerks should be required to issue marriage licenses”, Huffmon said.

And an overwhelming majority of respondents said that religion plays a “very important” role in their lives. Now a new Winthrop Poll shows strong support in the state for that decision.

The survey marks a major change from a Winthrop poll past year, which found that residents preferred to keep the flag aloft rather than take it down by a almost 2-to-1 margin (61 percent to 33 percent).