Almost half of registered voters say Sen. Elizabeth Warren's, D-Mass., DNA test, which shows she could be .09 percent Native American, makes no difference in their view of her, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.
Warren made her DNA test results public last week when she shared them with the Boston Globe. The results show there is "strong evidence" she had a Native American in her family six to 10 generations ago.
Morning Consult polled 1,968 registered voters on Oct. 18 and 19, a few days after the news broke, with a margin of error of plus or minus two percent.
Forty-nine percent of voters say these results made no difference in their opinion of the senator, while 40 percent said the test did shift their views. Broken down by party, 57 percent of Democrats say the test makes "no difference" in their opinion and 40 percent of Republicans say the same.
For those who say the test shifted their view, 16 percent say their impression of Warren is more favorable and 24 percent say it is less favorable.
Tyler Sinclair, vice president of Morning Consult, said of the poll numbers, “Elizabeth Warren’s decision to divulge her ancestry results did little to impact her standing among self-identified liberals. Notably, over a quarter of liberals (26 percent) have a favorable impression of Warren’s decision to release her DNA results, compared to just 12 percent who have an unfavorable one.”
Democrats have expressed frustration with Warren for making the results public so close to the 2018 midterm elections. Native Americans and progressives have also said that Warren is appropriating tribal ancestry to settle the matter that has been an issue since 2012 when Warren ran for Senate in Massachusetts against former Republican Sen. Scott Brown.
Warren said she took the DNA test to restore Americans' trust in government, but many think it was a political move to clear the path for a presidential run in 2020.
Thirty percent of voters view the senator favorably while 38 percent view her unfavorably. Thirty-two percent have either no opinion or have not heard of Warren. Democrats largely view Warren favorably while Republicans generally hold negative views of her, according to the poll.
President Trump has nicknamed Warren "Pocahontas," but after the release of her DNA results Trump said he could no longer call her that because she does not have "enough Indian blood."