George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, arrives for his deposition amid the U.S. House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry into President Trump in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Oct. 15, 2019(Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo, EPA-EFE)

WASHINGTON A new poll indicates Michigan voters are closely split over whether to support or oppose an inquiry underway in the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump.

Marketing Resource Group, a Lansing-based communications firm that often works with Republican candidates, on Wednesday released findings from a poll that showed 48.5% of likely voters surveyed support the impeachment inquiry while 45.2% oppose it.

It is one of the first independent polls to be done on impeachment among voters in Michiganalone, which makes it significant, given that Michigan along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania narrowly tipped the Electoral College in Trump'sfavor in 2016.

The fact that overall supportfor the impeachment inquiry is below the 50% threshold, and waybelow other nationalpolling numbers on the same issue, confirms Michigan will continue to be in play (in the presidential election) next year," said Jenell Leonard, who owns the firm, which is also known as MRG.

The poll is also significant given that two Democratic members of the U.S. House from Michigan Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Holly and Haley Stevens of Rochester Hills who flipped formerly Republican-held districts in the last electionhave come out in support of the impeachment inquiry, and have been targeted by Republicans.

Democrats are considering impeaching Trump after he asked the president of Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, despite there being no evidence he committed any corrupt act. Trump later suggested China should investigate Biden, too. It is illegal to solicit aid from a foreign government in a U.S. election.

Leonard isthe former director of the Michigan film office andis married to former state House Speaker Tom Leonard of Dewitt, whom Trump has nominated to become U.S. Attorney for the western district of Michigan.

A recent CBS national poll showed 55% of Americans support the impeachment inquiry, though that was a poll of U.S. citizens and not likely voters.

For the new Michigan poll,MRG surveyed a random sample of 600 likely Michigan voters Oct. 7-10 using live interviewers.The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Only about 6% of those surveyed either refused to answer or said they didn't know whether they supported or opposed impeachment proceedings.

As expected, Democrats were sharply in favor of the inquiry 87% to 9% and Republicans were just as sharply against it 6% to 90%. Among self-described independents, however, 50% were in support, with 38% opposed.

Tom Shields, who founded MRG and remains as a senior adviser, said the findings indicate what could be a hard-fought battle for the state in 2020.

President Trump is going to have a tough time winning Michigan," he said. "And the Democrats are going to have a tough time defeating him.

Read more:

Top Democrats all lead in head-to-head matchups with Trump in Michigan

Elissa Slotkin, Debbie Dingell move forward on impeachment

Contact Todd Spangler at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

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New poll shows what Michigan voters think about impeaching Trump - Detroit Free Press