Poll: Big GOP Opposition to Nexstar Merger, TV Consolidation

A new national survey of Republican primary voters finds overwhelming opposition to the proposed Nexstar–Tegna merger and deep resistance to further consolidation of television stations under large corporate ownership.

The poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, found base Republican voters place a high value on local television news and strongly prefer locally owned stations.

The poll also indicated these voters fear large media mergers as a threat to fair debate, local coverage, and consumer costs. (Surveyed 800 Republican primary voters nationwide, between Jan. 31 and Feb. 4, 2026. Margin of error is ±3.46%.)

The poll results show broad GOP opposition to the proposed Nexstar–Tegna $6.2 billion deal, which, if approved, would give the combined company an unprecedented 80% reach of U.S. households through control over 244 television stations across 44 states.

The merged Nexstar would also own more stations than ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox combined – far outstripping the congressionally mandated ownership cap of 39% of U.S. households.

Republican voters also expressed deep concerns over Nexstar, a decidedly liberal and pro-Democratic company, having such reach.

In 2024, nearly 80% of Nexstar employee presidential contributions went to Kamala Harris, and the company owns the liberal news channel NewsNation, led in primetime by former CNN host Chris Cuomo.

Opposition to the Nexstar–Tegna deal, however, was already lopsided before voters were given additional details, but hardened into near unanimity after respondents learned more about the merger's implications.

Key results of GOP voters included:

• Overwhelmingly 68% oppose the Nexstar merger, only 7% support it.
• Opposition increases to 96% when told about merger implications.
• 83% of voters say local TV stations should be locally owned; only 2% want major corporate ownership.
• 70% of voters don't want one company controlling multiple top local TV stations.
• 75% of voters oppose large, national corporate TV groups buying local TV stations.
• 59% of Republican voters say they are "very convinced" of their view on the Nexstar merger by Newsmax's opposition.

The poll also looked at Iowa Republican voter preferences and results suggest TV consolidation could become a major issue in the 2028 GOP primary.

Nationally, GOP voters are deeply concerned about local TV news control, with 72% saying their local TV news is "personally important" to them.

Poll respondents said several issues concerned them about Nexstar's merger, including the "threat to fair debate," higher cable bills, and liberal media influence.