As Trump is Federally Indicted, Oklahomans Weigh In
As former President Donald Trump is federally indicted on criminal charges related to his handling of presidential papers at his residence, a recently conducted SoonerPoll Quarterly poll indicates that a majority of Oklahomans neither support nor oppose such an indictment.
According to the poll which was just conducted June 1-4th among likely voting Oklahomans, only a plurality (45.6 percent) believe Trump SHOULD BE indicted while 40.6 percent believe he SHOULD NOT be indicted, and 13.8 percent don't know.
"While a plurality thinks he should be indicted and another almost equal percent believe he should not, it just shows how divided Oklahomans and Americans in general are in the country right now," said Bill Shapard, the pollster who oversaw the poll's development and fielding.
[QUESTION] "Former President Donald Trump for alleged violations with regard to classified documents kept at his residence in Florida, Mar-a-Lago"
- Should be indicted 45.6%
- Should NOT be indicted 40.6
- Don't know 13.8
Results broke primarily by political party with 83.2 percent of Democrats believing he should be indicted and 63 percent of Republicans believing he shouldn't be indicted. Slightly more than 77 percent of Independents believed he should be indicted. Just about 20 percent of Republicans believed he should be indicted. Republicans were 59 percent of the total sample of likely voters in the poll.
"Most polling, so far, shows roughly 60 percent of Republicans supporting Trump for president in 2024, indicating that 40 percent are supporting someone else in the primary," Shapard said, "It would appear that there is a portion of Republicans who believe supporting an indictment of the former Republican president helps their presidential candidate of choice."
An overwhelming majority, 81.2 percent, of voters who describe themselves as "very conservative" opposed indicting Trump, but that percentage drops to just 44.6 percent among "somewhat conservatives." Moderate voters support the indictment with 65.4 percent. Those who identify as conservative were 55.3 percent of the overall sample in the poll.
A majority of voters, 55.7 percent, in the Tulsa dominated first congressional district opposed a Trump indictment, but, interestingly, voters in the more rural Republican 3rd congressional district supported it. A plurality of 48.6 percent in the "Little Dixie" 2nd congressional district opposed the indictment, but a near majority, 49.9 percent in the OKC dominated fifth district supported it. The fourth congressional district, which contains the more liberal leaning university town of Norman, supported the indictment with 54.6 percent.
The desire to indict former President Trump typically fell with age, meaning the youngest voters, those 18-24, supported it with 83.8 percent, but only 31.4 percent of those over the age of 65 supported the indictment. Those 55-64 were near split with 47.3 percent wanting to indict and 41.7 percent not wanting it. Those voters over the age of 55 were 58 percent of the poll's sample.
About the Poll
SoonerPoll.com, Oklahoma’s public opinion pollster, asked these questions of Oklahoma likely voters.
The scientific study was conducted from June 1-4, 2023 with 302 likely Oklahoma voters selected at random statewide from SoonerPoll's proprietary online panel. The sample was weighted by education, age, and congressional district in order to reflect the Oklahoma likely voter population for a general election. The weighting was conducted using a 'layered technique.'
The sample reflects the traditional demographical profile of the Oklahoma likely voter with roughly half of respondents identifying as conservative and nearly a third identifying as Moderate. The study has a Margin of Error (MoE) of ±5.65 percent.
A complete description of the methodology can be found here.
