Former President Donald Trump currently has the support of just under half of Arizona voters and boasts a slight lead over President Joe Biden, according to a poll released Wednesday.
The Emerson College poll found 48 percent of registered voters in Arizona support Trump’s bid to return to the White House, while 44 percent want to see Biden elected to a second term.
When the 14 percent of respondents were pushed to support a candidate, Trump’s support rose to 53 percent and Biden’s rose to 49 percent.
Though pollsters found Arizona voters are willing to send Trump back to the White House, their data shows 44 percent of voters prefer Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) over Kari Lake in the race for U.S. Senate. Lake received 40 percent of support.
When undecided voters were pushed, the gap between the likely candidates shrunk, with 51 percent supporting Gallego and 49 percent supporting Lake.
The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted between March 12-15, and the pollsters reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
While Emerson Polling executive director Spencer Kimball noted that independent voters appear to be breaking toward Gallego following the confirmation that Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) will not seek reelection, the pollsters found a plurality of Arizona’s independents now support Trump.
Forty-five percent back the former president compared to 14 percent who support Biden. The pollsters additionally found 51 percent believe Trump “deserves another chance to run” for the White House.
By contrast, 58 percent of respondents told pollsters they “do not believe Joe Biden deserves to be reelected.” Additionally, 43 percent of Biden’s supporters said they support the president “because they dislike Trump.”
Pollsters found that nearly one-third of Arizona voters ranked immigration as their top issue, followed by 22 percent who reported that the economy was their greatest concern.
The survey reported that voters who said immigration was their top issue broke for Lake by a large margin, with 77 percent preferring her to Gallego. When asked about the economy, voters narrowly broke for Gallego, with 43 percent saying they trust the Democrat and 38 percent Lake.
The Emerson College poll also suggested the extended honeymoon period for Governor Katie Hobbs may be coming to a close, with 38 percent of respondents approving and 41 percent disapproving of her job as governor.
Biden’s numbers were worse than the governor’s, with 36 percent of the state’s voters approving of the president’s job performance compared to 56 percent who disapprove.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “President Joe Biden” by President Joe Biden. Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
