Poll gives Democrats early lead in Montana races

Phil Drake | Great Falls Tribune

Show Caption Hide Caption 3 new polls on President Trump, each with completely different results New polls on President Trump’s job approval ratings give completely different results.

A recently released poll shows Democratic challenger Kathleen Williams with a 6- point lead over incumbent GOP Rep. Greg Gianforte in the Nov. 6 race for the state’s lone House seat and Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester with a 9 point lead over Republican challenger Matt Rosendale.

The poll by Gravis Marketing, released Tuesday, claims it did a random survey of 469 likely Montana voters from June 11-13 and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent. The company describes itself as a Gravis says it is a nonpartisan research firm and public relations firm with a clientele including political campaigns, public affairs organizations, consultants, and nonprofit organizations.

The poll gives Williams 49 percent of the vote and Gianforte 43 percent.

It also gives Tester 51 percent of the vote and Rosendale 44 percent.

However, when asked if they had to make a decision that very day, 10 percent of the voters chose Tester, 4 percent chose Rosendale and 87 percent were undecided. The poll warns that numbers may not be 100 percent because of rounding.

Doug Kaplan of Gravis said no one commissioned the study and it was a gravismarketing.com poll.

The poll found that 50 percent of voters approved or somewhat approved of President Donald Trump’s job performance and 47 percent somewhat or strongly disapproved.

The same poll found that 41 percent of those queried strongly or somewhat approved of Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., job performance and 43 percent strongly or somewhat disapproved.

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock had 56 percent of those polled strongly or somewhat approving his performance. And 35 percent somewhat or strongly disapprove.

The poll found that 46 percent of voters would be less likely to support a candidate if they knew they would support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and 48 percent felt the same way about Trump. In 2016, Trump won the presidential race in the state by 20 points.



Reach Phil Drake at 406-422-0772 or pdrake@greatfallstribune.com

To know more

To read about the poll, go to: https://bit.ly/2yuVqUZ