Another poll shows Gov. Jim Justice with a big edge in the race for U.S. Senate.
The poll for WMOV Radio released today through American Pulse shows Justice is the favored Senate candidate for 55.7% of likely Republican voters.
Twenty-two percent of poll participants described themselves as still undecided, while Congressman Alex Mooney gets support from 19.9 percent of participants weighing in on the U.S. Senate race.
“I just don’t know how they catch him to be honest with you,” said Tom Susman, owner of WMOV Radio, speaking on MetroNews’ “Talkline.” “I think he is that far ahead.”
Incumbent Senator Joe Manchin announced this month that he will not seek re-election. That means the seat is widely considered a likely Republican pickup, given West Virginia voting trends in recent years.
“With the recent retirement announcement from Senator Joe Manchin and the strong Republican tilt of the state, Jim Justice is the catbird seat to be West Virginia’s next senator,” said the lead pollster for the survey, Dustin Olson of American Pulse Research & Polling.
The poll showed Justice with the highest favorability at 73%, positioning him as a top political figure in West Virginia. Although Justice’s network of family businesses face a range of lawsuits and conflicts that are regularly in the news, 46.2% said they are less likely to vote for Justice based on those issues, and 25.6% said they are more likely to vote for him.
“I mean, he’s just he’s a powerhouse when it comes to politics and people in the state really like him,” Susman said.
The poll examined what might happen if Mooney dropped back to seek re-election to the congressional seat he won last year. With Mooney as a possible choice on the ballot, he would be ahead with 41.1% support, according to the poll. Meanwhile, 40.8% are undecided. State Treasurer Riley Moore, the frontrunner as the race stands now, polls at 11.6% with Mooney in the race.-go
“This is the exploratory part of campaigning, where people are exploring running for higher offices, and it’s not uncommon for folks to say it’s a no-go and to back up,” Susman said.
The poll was conducted through methods that included 414 interviews and broad demographic representation. The approach included live telephone interviews, text-to-web surveys and interactive voice response, resulting in a margin of error of +/- 4.8% at a 95% confidence level.
The poll showed a tight race in the Republican primary for West Virginia governor, with Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (30.5%) and House Judiciary Chairman Moore Capito (22.6%) in the early lead.
In the governor’s race, 22.8% of poll participants said they are still undecided.
Among other candidates for governor, the poll showed Secretary of State Mac Warner with 13.7% support and businessman Chris Miller of Huntington with 10.4% support.
A political action committee that supports Warner for governor released its own polling last week that showed Warner in second place, just a few points behind Morrisey.
There’s still plenty of time for that race to take shape, Susman said.
“What we believe is that when people start spending money this thing could gel,” Susman said. “Nobody is so far out that it’s a slam dunk for any of them.”
He added, “No one has defined themselves or their opponent, really. And when people start defining themselves or defining their opponent then I think you’ll see some movement in this race. The thing that I think for Morrisey is probably most concerning is what does Mac Warner do? Does he continue to grow, and he is growing. I think they take from the same side of the street, the conservative side of the street.”