Polls

Vitter Badly Damaged; Highly Vulnerable in Runoff Election

| Tom Jensen

A new national Public Policy Polling survey of Louisiana voters finds that David Vitter has seen a large decline in his popularity over the last year, and that while he’s still favored to make the runoff for Governor he is in a bad position when it comes to a head to head match up with John Bel Edwards.

Key findings from the survey include:

Vitter has become quite unpopular, with only 34% of voters rating him favorably to 51% with a negative opinion of him. A year ago at this time 46% of voters approved of the job he was doing to just 35% who disapproved. Most striking is how sour even Republicans have gotten on him- only 46% rate him favorably to 44% who see him negatively. And he’s quite unpopular with both independents (30/52) and Democrats (24/58).

-Vitter is still well positioned to make the runoff election. His 27% standing is just behind 28% for John Bel Edwards, but well ahead of the 15% and 14% Scott Angelle and Jay Dardenne respectively are receiving. Among voters who are undecided for Governor, only 24% have a favorable opinion of Vitter to 49% with an unfavorable one, suggesting he may not have a lot of room to gain either.

When it comes to the runoff election Vitter trails Edwards 50/38, a massive turn around from a year ago when Vitter led that match up 50/32. 28% of Republican voters even say right now that they would vote for Edwards before they would vote for Vitter. Other Republicans fare better than Vitter in match ups against Edwards- Dardenne leads him 42/40, while Angelle ties at 40%.

-Vitter is especially struggling with women. Only 28% have a favorable opinion of him to 54% with a negative one, and he trails Edwards 57/30 head to head with them.

These numbers make it clear that the landscape around the Louisiana Gubernatorial race has changed dramatically. A year ago Vitter looked like a clear favorite but he’s become very unpopular in the time since, and now it appears that there is a very good chance he will be defeated this fall.

Public Policy Polling surveyed 616 likely voters on September 21st and 22nd on behalf of Gumbo PAC. The survey’s margin of error is +/-4.0%

Full results here

undefined

Related Polls