A Quinnipiac University poll published on Wednesday suggests that Democratic candidates running for Senate and governor in Georgia are faring much better than they were just a few months ago — and are on possible paths to victory come November.
The poll asked voters which candidates they’d prefer to vote for if the election were being held today. In the governor’s race, Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams tied with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, in an a replay of their 2018 gubernatorial races in which Abrams narrowly lost (and controversially).
Respondents in the poll gave both candidates 48 percent support. When it came to favorability ratings, however, Abrams did better — Kemp garnered a net honesty rating of +6 points among Georgia voters, while Abrams’s rating was +10 points, for example. When asked whether each candidate cares about the average Georgian, Abrams again did better, attaining a net +16 points on the question, compared to Kemp’s rating of +9 points.
Meanwhile, in the Senate race, incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock — who won a close race in a special election in 2020 — is breaking away from his Republican opponent, former NFL player Herschel Walker. In Quinnipiac University’s January pollThe two candidates were in a statistical tie with Walker leading Warnock 1 point. Walker now leads Warnock by two-digits.
According to the poll, 54% of Georgia voters would choose to reelect Warnock today, while 44% would prefer Walker.
Walker’s support is likely dwindling due to a number of controversies he has been involved in over the past several weeks, including falsely claiming that he once worked in law enforcement claiming to have never heard former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolenGeorgia. It was also revealed in the Quinnipiac poll, that Walker, who is frequently criticized fathers who are absent in their children’s livesHe is the father to three children. that he has not previously acknowledgedHe is more than the one son he spoke of from a previous marriage.
The poll also asked about Georgians’ opinions on President Joe Biden. According to the survey, Biden’s approval rating among Georgians is only 33 percent. 60 percent of respondents said that they have a negative view of Biden’s job performance.
Those low numbers are typically a bad sign for an incumbent president’s political party in midterm races, but as the Quinnipiac poll shows, Biden’s low approval is not necessarily affecting other Democratic candidates.
Indeed, in a nationwide NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released earlier this weekBiden’s approval rating was only 40 percent and his disapproval score was 53 percent. Still, when asked who they would vote for in a generic congressional vote, respondents were more likely to say that they’d vote for a Democratic candidate (48 percent) than a Republican one (41 percent).
Democrats are hopeful that polls like these mean they’ll be able to retain control of both houses of Congress, in spite of it being a midterm election year that conventional wisdom says Republicans will likely win. Many experts agree that Democrats must win elections. Be more forward-thinkingBiden is more than Biden, as both Warnock Abramsa Georgia race.
