Retired astronaut Mark Kelly holds a 10-percentage-point lead over appointed U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, according to a new survey by one of the state’s most respected political consulting firms, Highground Public Affairs Consultants.
More than half the voters surveyed, 51.3 percent, supported Kelly in the poll, while McSally had the support of just 41.3 percent.
Kelly, who is married to former Southern Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, is leading McSally 54-36 percent in Pima County and is doing even better in Maricopa County, where his lead is 57-36. But McSally is outdoing Kelly in the rural counties, leading 60-31 percent.
Given that a Highground poll released yesterday showed that Trump was trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by just 2 percentage point, Highground CEO Charles “Chuck” Coughlin said that McSally is not being dragged down by Trump but is failing on her own reputation.
“Clearly, for the Arizona voter, Kelly is presenting himself as a better option than Biden, adopting the similar strategy which won Krysten Sinema her United States Senate seat in 2018 of avoiding the progressive partisan label that the Democratic Party’s nominee must shoulder,” said Coughlin, a onetime advisor to former Arizona governors Fife Symington and Jan Brewer.
Coughlin said McSally was running out of time to change the narrative of the race.
“The social and economic tumult of the past three months would lead one to believe that anything is possible, but the road ahead is narrowing for McSally’s campaign,” Coughlin said. “Mark Kelly is a formidable candidate for the Arizona electorate, one could reasonably describe him as the best candidate the Democrats have running in this cycle.”
But Coughlin added that there would be big twists ahead.
“With a 20-point lead in Maricopa County and more than 17 point lead in Pima County, many might consider this race all but over,” Coughlin said. ‘But, that would be a mistake. Our survey released yesterday indicated that 20% of the electorate is blaming China for COVID-19 and 25% still doesn’t know or is blaming no one. Given the recent attacks on Kelly’s business dealings, you can expect the Republican narrative to focus sharply on this issue in an attempt to link Kelly to China and undermine his performance in the dominant media markets of Maricopa and Pima County. McSally will clearly have to up her game with Republican and swing voters in Maricopa and greater Arizona in order to be successful, but as long as Trump is running a competitive race, you cannot count Senator McSally out.”
Highground’s methodology:
The N=400 survey was conducted among likely voters 5/18 through 5/22. The poll surveyed likely Arizona 2020 General Election voters who have a history of electoral participation and was balanced to model the likely turnout of voters across party, age, region, and gender. The live interview survey of voters was conducted by HighGround Public Affairs to both landline and cell phone users. The partisan advantage was set at +4% GOP based on previous election trends and expected Presidential Election turnout. The margin of error is ±4.9%.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2020.
Crushing? What a male chauvinist pig.
Look back at the Dingles. It is never a good reason for a spouse to also run. Plus this guy seems to make up ,his position on issues each and every day.
You don’t need that comma in there, Martha.
You don’t need that comma in there Mark.
Remember that “liberal hack” line she fed a journalist for only doing his job, you know, asking questions?
That was the nail in the coffin for her political career.
Bye-bye Martha. Az will be better for it.
I remember Mark Kelly trying to fraud an AZ Gun Dealer, just to show how easy it is to get a gun. They trusted him the first time..
“full refund to Kelly and nixed the transaction because Kelly made statements in the media that the rifle purchase was “for reasons other then (sic) for his personal use.”-CNN
But it will be OK to trust these types with mail in ballots. Yeah right.
A poll of 400 people who are so bored or lonely they’ll take the time to talk to a pollster doesn’t seem very representative to me, even if it is “across party, age, region, and gender”. Most of the people I know won’t answer polls, & most of them plan to vote for Martha McSally. As more of our media feel pressure to expose Kelly’s lies, greed, waste of $15 million in Arizona taxpayer dollars, & World View failures, I think even intelligent Democrats will decide McSally’s the better choice. The fact that he rarely visits this state & has shown very little interest in Arizona issues shouldn’t help him in November.
Yes, He was trying to show how easy it would be to get a gun with our silly gun laws. Their have been others who also showed how easy it was to get a gun. It’s unfortunate that are laws on guns are weak.
Why can’t you trust people to mail in their ballots. Everyone only has one vote. They match you name to your ballot. The only way to trick the system would be to turn in a ballot for someone who died. They would again look up the person ballot/vote and confirm they are alive. So it’s not really an easy thing or doable thing to trick the system. YOu will get caught. These ballot workers are really thorough. You’ll be alright sending your ballot in if your worried.
Regarding Kelly’s lies what are they? You can’t just mention lies, greed, waste of Arizonan’s taxpayers money without baking it up. WE could say the same on the other side. People want facts. Please provide in your next thread. thx.
Be serious. Could it be that the American voter does NOT KNOW that Mark Kelly wants the removal of the 2nd amendment? Or that he toured China on a motorcycle with the Chinese flag flying? Has the financial support of the Chinese government? He will NOT get our family vote. We need the Silent Majority to VOTE “R” in all elections and make the socialist, anti-police, TDS’ites and anti-Constitutional and anti-Bill of Rights CRYING democrats back to hell. Not now, at all, close to my parent’s democrat party. Time for a new party without all the anti-American, anti-God, anti-law and order philosophies. .