Sen. Chris Coons and Rep. John Carney have comfortable leads among First State voters according to a new University of Delaware Center for Political Communication poll.
About 50 percent of Delaware residents polled say they’d vote for Coons in the race for US Senate if the election were held today compared to 23 percent for challenger Kevin Wade.
Carney holds a larger lead over his Republican opponent for US House Rose Izzo. 52 percent of those polled said they’d vote the incumbent Democrat while just 17 percent said they would vote for Izzo.
Paul Brewer, Associate Director of UD’s Center for Political Communication, helped administer the poll. He notes Election Day is five weeks away, but he says he doesn’t foresee any major shakeups.
“With Coons at 50 percent and Carney at 52 percent, something dramatic would have to happen to alter the outcome,” said Brewer.
Brewer adds the incumbents have two factors in their favor.
“36 percent of our respondents said that they consider themselves a Democrat. Only 22 percent said Republican with the remainder saying Independent, no preference or other. So that’s a 14 point edge,” said Brewer.
The other, Brewer says, is name recognition with voters.
The poll surveyed 900 residents, with nearly 775 registered voters. Brewer says results didn’t vary much between the two groups.
No third party candidate broke seven percent and undecided or those refusing to answer hovered around 20 percent for both races.
The margin of error is just under four percent.