After a hard-fought primary win on Tuesday, Republican Tommy Thompson now holds a double-digit lead over Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race, according to the latest Rasumeesen reports survey.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Wisconsin Voters shows Thompson with 54 percent of the vote to Baldwin’s 43 percent. One percent prefer some other candidate, and three percent are undecided.
That’s a big change from a month ago when Baldwin had the advantage.
The surge results from the fact that Republicans have quickly rallied around their party’s nominee. Before his narrow victory in the primary this week, Thompson was backed by just 75 percent of GOP voters against Baldwin. Now, he earns support from 97 percent of the voters in his party.
With the exception of the July poll taken in the heat of the primary battle, Thompson had consistently earned 48 percent to 52 percent overall support against Baldwin. Baldwin’s support had ranged from 36 percent to 42 percemt.
Baldwin now draws support from 92 percent of Democrats, up from 86 percent before she ran unopposed in the primary. Thompson leads by 23 points among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties.
Twenty-three percent of Wisconsin voters now view Thompson Very Favorably, representing a 13-point jump from late July. Seventeen percent share a Very Unfavorable view of Thompson, down from 24 percent last month.
For Baldwin, Very Favorables are 22 percent and Very Unfavorables are 33 percent. Views of Baldwin are less positive than they were in the previous poll.
Thompson and Baldwin are both well known among voters in Wisconsin. But at this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with strong opinions more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers.
The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Wisconsin was conducted on August 15, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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