Ron Johnson's same-sex marriage reversal, and what it portends

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

50% :Americans have decided they want same-sex marriage, with 71 percent supporting it in the most recent Gallup poll.
46% : They also did so even as their colleagues decried the vote as unnecessary, since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.
42% : And the fact that even those who are retiring, or who in 2022 will need the support of moderate voters who back same-sex marriage, aren't on board shows the math could be as difficult as the politics.
41% : They might also see what has happened to their party's political fortunes after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and decide that, however unlikely the court might be to reverse itself on same-sex marriage too, it's better to take that off the table as even a perceived prospect.
37% : On the flip side, the GOP as a whole is still very much split on same-sex marriage.
37% : If Republicans think they can explain these votes by convincing people that same-sex marriage isn't in any way threatened - rather than that they necessarily oppose same-sex marriage itself - they might prefer that, given the number of issues (such as contraception and interracial marriage) that could similarly back them into a corner.
36% : He has also struck a pragmatic tone in his past comments, saying in 2014, even before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage that, "if the voters decide that they want same-sex marriage, I'm not going to oppose it."

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