With just over two weeks to go until the 2018 November elections, Gretchen Whitmer holds a 50 percent to 36 percent lead over Attorney General Bill Schuette in the race for Governor according to the MRG Michigan Poll® released today.
Gretchen Whitmer is leading Schuette in every geographical area in the state except for northern Michigan, including leading Schuette by 12 percent (50 percent - 38 percent) in normally Republican west Michigan. Whitmer also leads by 23 percent with women voters (55 percent – 32 percent) and by 21 percent with Independent voters (37 percent – 16 percent).
The primary battle appears to have left Schuette with an overall negative rating of 24 percent positive and 46 percent negative. Whitmer perception is still overall positive with 39 percent of the voters having a positive perception and only 26 percent having a negative.
“Bill Schuette hasn’t been able to recover from the bitter primary battle that increased his negative perception headed into the general election,” said Tom Shields, President of Marketing Resource Group (MRG). “Whitmer has put together an impressive coalition of metro Detroit and west Michigan voters, women and young voters that Schuette has not been able to crack. He’ll need to quickly change the momentum to have a chance on November 6th.”
The results and the wording of the questions asked by MRG follow.
GOP Gubernatorial Primary Vote
Q. As you know, Michigan will have a General election on November 6th. If the election for Governor was held today, would you vote for [ROTATE] (Bill Schuette the Republican), (Gretchen Whitmer the Democrat), Bill Gelineau the Libertarian, or for someone else? [IF DON'T KNOW, ASK:] Well, if you had to decide, are you leaning toward [ROTATE] Bill Schuette, Gretchen Whitmer, Bill Gelineau, or someone else?
|
October 2018 |
Gretchen Whitmer |
50% |
Bill Schuette |
36% |
Bill Gelineau |
2% |
Someone else |
4% |
Other/Undecided/Don’t Know |
7% |
|
City of Detroit |
Balance of Wayne |
Oakland |
Macomb |
Balance of Detroit SMSA |
Mid-MI |
West MI |
Tri-cities/ Thumb |
Northern Lower MI + UP |
Bill Schuette |
10% |
29% |
37% |
35% |
36% |
42% |
38% |
39% |
45% |
Gretchen Whitmer |
78% |
60% |
52% |
49% |
45% |
47% |
50% |
42% |
41% |
Q Now, I'm going to read you the names of some people and groups in the news, and I'd like you to rate your feelings toward each one as very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative. If you don't know the name, please just say so. (RANDOMIZE)
SCHUETTE |
Name ID |
Positive Perception |
Negative Perception |
October 2018 |
93 |
27 |
42 |
March 2018 |
66 |
24 |
18 |
September 2017 |
68 |
21 |
18 |
May 2017 |
64 |
21 |
17 |
October 2016 |
57 |
20 |
18 |
Feb 2016 |
70 |
23 |
20 |
Feb 2015 |
64 |
21 |
16 |
WHITMER |
Name ID |
Positive Perception |
Negative Perception |
October 2018 |
94 |
39 |
26 |
March 2018 |
30 |
10 |
5 |
September 2017 |
28 |
10 |
4 |
May 2017 |
32 |
14 |
5 |
October 2016 |
21 |
8 |
5 |
MRG Michigan Poll® Fall 2018
None of the questions released in this press advisory where paid for or sponsored by outside third parties. The data belongs to MRG and is being released to the public.
The survey of 600 likely Michigan voters was conducted by live interview October 14 – October 18, 2018. The sample was randomly drawn from a listed sample of all registered voters with a history of voting and stratified by city and township to reflect voter turnout. Thirty percent of the sample was conducted with cell phone users. In addition, quotas for gender and cell phone interviews were met within each geographic area, and extra efforts were made to reach African Americans.
A sample of 600 likely voters in Michigan yields a sampling margin of error of ±4 percent with a 95 percent confidence interval. The sampling margin of error for subgroups may be higher depending on the size of the subgroup.
About Marketing Resource Group, Inc.
Lansing, Michigan-based Marketing Resource Group, Inc. (www.mrgmi.com) is an award-winning PR firm representing corporate, association, nonprofit, and private clients with interests in Michigan. MRG offers expertise in public affairs, communications, political campaign management, and public opinion survey research. For more than thirty years, MRG has conducted its bi-annual omnibus Michigan Poll®, tracking the pulse of Michigan voters on key statewide public policy and political issues. MRG is the only Michigan public opinion survey research firm that maintains nearly 30 years of trend analyses of voter attitudes related to state and national leaders, political parties, and the political and economic climate in Michigan. If any member of the media is interested in our trend data, please contact Tom Shields.
Follow MRG on Twitter @mrgmichigan and on Facebook.
Source: Press Release
