A recent survey of Louisiana voters shows some surprising numbers in the deep red state when it comes to President Donald Trump. The poll shows most Louisiana voters would rather not reelect the president. But there may be a catch, according to the pollster behind the survey.
In most polls, President Trump does well among Louisiana voters, but in this survey from Market Research Insight, 54 percent said they'd rather elect someone else in 2020, and only 37 percent said they would vote for Mr. Trump's reelection.
"The numbers surprise me as much as other people that he gets 37 percent reelect," said Market Research Insight's Verne Kennedy.
But Kennedy wonders if something may be happening that happened once before -- when white supremacist David Duke was running for Senate in the early 1990s:
"What we discovered," said Kennedy, "is that, especially among white women 40 years and older, they were hesitant to say they were for David Duke, and if the interviewer happened to be African-American, they were very hesitant to say that."
Kennedy says he can't say for sure, however, if that explains the current numbers for President Trump.
"I don't know if that's happening here or not," said Kennedy, "but I do have concern that could be as much as five, ten percent of voters who are simply not willing to say they're for Trump."
The poll also found voters evenly split on the president's favorability rating: 46 percent for both.
Kennedy also said that the more liberal the Democratic 2020 nominee turns out to be, the more likely it is that President Trump's numbers will go up in Louisiana.
The poll of 600 likely voters took place in April. It has a margin of error of ± 4.1 percent and was commissioned by a group of Louisiana business interests that has hired Kennedy to do these surveys since 1991.