A growing number of U.S. voters don't want the Senate to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, after he defended himself in public against sexual misconduct allegations, according to a new poll released Monday.

A Quinnipiac University National Poll released Monday said 48 percent of voters oppose Kavanaugh's confirmation, up 6 points from a poll taken before to his appearance last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Support for the federal appellant judge rose slightly to 42 percent.

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The increase in opposition to Kavanaugh reported by the study was driven by Democrats, women, and minority voters, echoing findings of a CBS News/YouGov Poll also published Monday.

The new Quinnipiac survey was timed to gauge opinions of voters as Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to publicly accuse the judge of sexual misconduct, testified before Congress about her claims. Ford alleged Kavanaugh drunkenly groped her and tried to remove her clothes in the 1980s when the pair were in high school. Kavanaugh has denied the accusations.

More respondents to Quinnipiac's poll, however, believe Ford's story, whereas more consider Kavanaugh to be "the target of a politically motivated smear campaign."

A full Senate vote on Kavanaugh's nomination has been delayed while the FBI conducts a limited supplementary background investigation in light of the women's allegations. More than two-in-three voters surveyed support the re-opening of the FBI's background check into the judge.

The Quinnipiac poll questioned 1,111 voters nationwide from Sept. 27-30 over the phone via landlines and cellphones. Its findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.