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Senate Majority PAC: Justine Turner justine@senatemajority.com (773) 623-9060

TO: Interested Parties

FROM: Priorities USA
Senate Majority PAC
Global Strategy Group
Garin Hart Yang Research Group
DATE: June 30, 2017
RE: Republican Health Care Bill Deeply Unpopular in Senate
Battlegrounds, Putting Senate Democrats in Strong Position
Summary

Though next years midterm elections will force Democrats to defend many more Senate seats than Republicans
including 10 seats in states that Donald Trump captured in 2016a new Senate battleground poll conducted for
Priorities USA and Senate Majority PAC shows that Democratic incumbents enter these midterm elections on
remarkably strong footing, with the unpopular health care bill only solidifying their position.

The health care proposal is extremely unpopular in these Senate battlegrounds, with only 25% of voters there
saying they hope it is signed into law. More than two-thirds of voters in 10 Senate battleground states have heard
a lot or some about the Republican bill and they dont like what they hear 70% of voters have big concerns about the
plans age tax, 68% of voters said they have big concerns about the elimination of patient protections that will cause
those with pre-existing conditions to pay more and 65% of voters have big concerns about the fact that the plan will
raise health care costs for many Americans.

Our survey found that after being told that the Republican candidate for Senate supported the GOP plan, voters
impressions of the GOP candidate went from being split evenly (21% fav/20% unfav) to being unfavorable by a 2-to-1
margin (26% fav/52% unfav). After hearing criticisms of the Republican plan, voters in these Senate
battlegrounds went from leaning toward voting the Democrat in 2018 by a healthy 48-38 margin to leaning
toward the Democrat by an even more robust 56-35 margin an 11-point jump.

Age Tax, Pre-Existing Conditions and Overall Higher Costs Are Senate
Battleground Voters Top Concerns About GOP Health Bill
More than two-thirds of voters in the 10 Senate battlegrounds have heard a lot or some about the Republican bill, and
by 60-25, they say they prefer that Congress work on a different solution rather than that the bill is passed by the
Senate and signed into law.

Our survey tested 11 different criticisms that have made about the Republican health care bill. All of these criticisms
raised big concerns among at least half of the voters we surveyed; all but two of the criticisms raised big concerns
among at least 60 percent of voters.

Of all the criticisms we tested, the ones causing the most concern were:

The plans age tax that allows insurance companies to charge people over the age of 50 health care
premiums that are up to five times higher than younger people. 70% of voters said this caused big concerns.
 This provision is particularly concerning to voters aged 45+ who make up a disproportionate percentage of
midterm voters.

The bills elimination of critical patient protections, such as the elimination of lifetime or annual caps on
coverage, and the provision allowing states to opt to let insurers charge those with preexisting conditions at
higher rates. 68% of voters said this caused big concerns.

The fact the plan will raise costs for many Americans by forcing them to pay thousands more in premiums for
skimpier health care plans. 65% of voters said this caused big concerns.

Furthermore, the majority of voters across all Senate battlegrounds are left with very unfavorable feelings towards
Republican Senate candidates who support the Republican health care bill and its specific proposals including:

65% of voters said they had an unfavorable (55% very unfavorable) view of a Republican Senate candidate
who supports the Republican health care bill that lets down older Americans and risks seniors ability to live
independently by taking resources away from Medicare, cutting Medicaid funding for nursing homes, and
letting insurance companies charge older people up to five times more than younger people for health
coverage.

63% of voters said they had an unfavorable (53% very unfavorable) view of a Republican Senate candidate
who supported the bill that takes away coverage from regular Americans who need it most by cutting health
care services and increasing costs for new mothers, cancer patients, those with pre-existing conditions, low-
income Americans, and the disabled, elderly, and mentally ill.

62% of voters said they had an unfavorable (54% very unfavorable) view of a Republican Senate candidate
who supported the plan that included a massive tax cut for millionaires and billionaires and for big drug and
insurance companies and the wealthy executives who run themall at the expense of regular Americans who
will end up losing health coverage and being saddles with premiums they cant afford.

The Health Care Fight Puts Senate Democratic Incumbents In Even Firmer
Position Heading into 2018

The Republicans unpopular health care bill is only improving Senate Democrats position heading into next years
midterms.

In our poll, we named the likeliest Republican challengers expected to run against the Democrat in next years Senate
races. At the beginning of our survey, impressions of these Republican candidates were fairly even split, with 21% of
voters they had a favorable view, 20% saying they had an unfavorable view, and more than half saying they were
neutral or did not know. But after indicating that the Republican supported the health care bill, voters
impressions of these candidates worsened considerably, with twice as many voters (52%) saying they had an
unfavorable view as opposed to a favorable one (26%).

Hearing about the criticisms made about the bill and the fact of the Republican candidates support for the
measure also had a significant effect in the head-to-head matchup. Voters went from saying they would vote
for the named Democrat over the named Republican by 48-38 to saying they would vote for the Democrat by
56-35.

The post-messaging movement is especially notable among voting groups that will be crucial to Democrats success
in 2018:

Among non-college whites, Democrats came from being down 42-44 to being up 52-38 after voters were told
about the Republicans support for the health care bill.
 Independents jumped from choosing Democrats by 35-24 to 50-26.
Among Republican women, Dems went from 16% support to 26% within that group.

About This Poll

Garin-Hart-Yang and Global Strategy Group conducted this poll by telephone June 23-27. The poll surveyed 802 voters
that were evenly drawn from 10 states hosting Senate contests next year: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada,
Ohio, West Virginia, North Dakota, Missouri, Montana and Indiana.

The margin of error is +/- 3.5 percentage points, and care has been taken to ensure that the geographic and
demographic divisions of the electorate are properly represented based on past voter turnout statistics.