Poll: Voters Support Withdrawing American Troops from Afghanistan

By Lew Blank

Today, the Taliban has swept across Afghanistan, taking over 11 provincial capitals, including Herat, the country’s third-largest city. Already, some politicians are using these horrific events to argue against President Biden’s plan to withdraw all troops from the nation by the end of August.

Polling from Data for Progress shows that voters overwhelmingly agree with President Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. In an April survey, we found that voters wanted to remove all troops from the nation by a +50-point margin, including a +69-point margin of Democrats, a +58-point margin of Independents, and a +22-point margin of Republicans.

These findings are directly in line with findings from other pollsters. In an April poll, Morning Consult found 69 percent support for withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan, including 52 percent of Republicans. Likewise, an April Hill-HarrisX poll found 73 percent support for a full withdrawal, including 54 percent of Republicans — results that remained consistent when they tested it again in July.

Read the April 2021 poll and the methodology here.