Results from a statewide poll commissioned by Y’allPolitics and conducted by Magellan Strategies BR on August 11 show that Donald Trump holds a 15 point lead among likely voters over Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head matchup with Trump at 54% to Hillary Clinton’s 39%. When the field is expanded to third party candidates, Trump’s lead only erodes slightly to +13%.

Trump’s lead is deep and wide as he wins support from Mississippians in three of the four congressional districts and among both men and women.

This is a follow up from our poll prior to the March 8 primaries, also conducted by Magellan BR.

Mississippi voters remain generally pessimistic about the state of the nation. Likely voters in Mississippi (both men and women) across all geographies say that the country is on the wrong track by a 68/32% margin. Democrats in Mississippi believe the country is on the right track 68/32%, but Republicans in Mississippi feel the country is on the wrong track by a staggering 95/5%.

Mississippi Issues

The poll also measured Mississippians attitudes on other key issues.

Mississippians are generally pessimistic about the state of affairs in Mississippi. Across men and women, black and white and all geographies, a majority of Mississippians believe the state is on the wrong track by an average of 63/37%.

Likely Mississippi voters were also asked to rank the K-12 public education system. 57% of respondents gave K-12 education in Mississippi a “C” or below grade. Democrats were generally more inclined than Republicans and Independents to rate K-12 schools higher.

The concept of school choice through programs like charter schools was popular by a 3:1 margin. 61% of Mississippians supported while 19% opposed. Charter schools enjoyed clear margins of support in both the black and white communities as well as in each congressional district.

The poll also posed the question, “Would you support or oppose consolidating failing K-12 school districts into successful ones if the savings from reducing administrative costs could put an additional $30 million per year into Mississippi classrooms?”

Mississippians seem to at least be willing to have a real conversation about consolidating school districts and using the savings in the classroom. 50% of Mississippians supported that premise while only 18% opposed with 32% undecided.

Finally, opinions on the state flag were polled again. Stances haven’t changed much since a similar poll in March 2016, but they seem to have become a little more polarized along party lines. Overall, Mississippians now oppose a change to the state flag on average 54/37% with Democrats more in favor of a flag change than 5 months ago and Republicans more opposed.

Methodology

Additional information about the polling can be found in the official toplines and cross tabs below. This was an automated telephone survey was stratified to reflect historic Mississippi voting demographics. Overall, 1,084 likely general election voters were interviewed. A survey of this size has a margin of error of +/- 2.9%. This survey was conducted August 11th, 2016.

MagellanBR-YP Poll Toplines 081616 by yallpolitics on Scribd

MagellanBR-YP Poll XTabs 081616 by yallpolitics on Scribd