majority of potential voters in the U.S. said that Donald Trump‘s criminal conviction was not a factor in how they would vote in November’s election, according to a poll.
A CBS News/YouGov survey of 2,063 U.S. adults found that 55 percent said Trump’s conviction in his New York hush-money trial was “not a factor” in their vote—with 17 percent saying it was a “minor factor” and 28 percent considering it a “major” influence.
On May 30, Trump became the first current or former U.S. president in history to be convicted of a crime when a jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Since the historic verdict, polls have been split as to whether Trump’s felony convictions have damaged or strengthened his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election. Trump himself accused the criminal case of being a politically motivated “witch hunt” that sought to hinder his chances of winning November’s race.
The CBS/YouGov poll, which was conducted between June 5 and 7, indicated that Trump’s guilty verdict was not having a dramatic effect in the neck-and-neck rematch of the 2020 race.
The results show Trump with a one-point lead (50 percent to 49 percent) over President Joe Biden in the general election. However, the president is ahead (50 percent to 49 percent) of his Republican rival in the seven key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The poll found that other hot-topic issues were more significant factors than Trump’s conviction in how people would vote. Eighty-one percent of respondents said the economy would be a major factor affecting their vote, making it the No. 1 issue. Inflation followed with 75 percent and democracy with 74 percent.