Survey: GOP supports nixing Nike subsidy
Overall, 49% back, 43% oppose Ducey’s decision over flag shoe
PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey appears to have made the right political decision in his slap at Nike and yanking a proffered $1 million subsidy to locate a new factory here — at least among members of his own Republican Party.
An oversight survey Tuesday night by OH Predictive Insights found 77% of Republicans questioned said they supported the governor’s decision to withdraw the incentives. By contrast, 67% of Democrats opposed Ducey’s action.
Among those who said they are independent and intend to vote in the next election, Ducey’s action was approved by a 52-40% margin. Overall, given the GOP registration edge in Arizona, that puts the total of the 800 people questioned in the automated interactive voice response polling at 49% in favor and 43% against.
“What we saw are some very familiar fault lines in what Arizonans thought about the issue,’’ said Mike Noble, the organization’s chief of research.
He also said that support for Ducey’s decision was stronger among those who do not have college degrees than those who have graduated, though he said the margin of difference was “much narrower.’’
In crafting the question, Noble told those who were called that the decision of Nike to drop the new sneakers with the Betsy Ross flag — the one with the 13 stars in a circle — was done “at the request of a professional athlete, Colin Kaepernick.’’
That is as it was reported by the Wall Street Journal, who said Kaepernick complained that the flag — dating from the United States’ first days as a nation — has become a symbol of the slavery that was occurring at that time. Kaepernick is a former NFL star who gained widespread attention with his decision to “take a knee’’ during the national anthem as a protest against police treatment of blacks.
Since that time he has been unable to find a professional team to hire him.
But Nike, in its own statement, made no reference to Kaepernick who the company has featured in some of its commercials. Instead, Nike said it made the decision not to unveil the $120 shoes as scheduled on July 4 “based on concerns that it could unintentionally offend and detract from the nation’s patriotic holiday.’’
Noble said the survey also found a bit of a partisan disparity when he asked the question of how proud people were to be an American.
Among Democrats, 60% said they were extremely proud, compared with 77% of independents and 90% of Republicans.
Conversely, 19% of Democrats said they were only a little proud or not proud at all. For Republicans, the figure was just 5%.
The survey has a margin of error of 3.5%.