MI-GOV: Whitmer leads Schuette by comfortable edge in Michigan governor's race

Lansing — Democrat Gretchen Whitmer holds a comfortable lead over Republican Bill Schuette in the Michigan governor's race and is doing a better job attracting critical independent voters, according to a new statewide poll conducted last week.

The survey of 600 likely Michigan voters conducted for The Detroit News and WDIV-TV shows support for Whitmer was especially strong among female, college-educated, Metro Detroit and senior voters. Roughly nine weeks out from the Nov. 6 election, more respondents said they had heard of Schuette than Whitmer, but fewer said they liked the two-term attorney general.

Whitmer had a nearly 14-percentage-point lead in the Sept. 5-7 survey, which has a margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points.

The poll showed 49.8 percent said they would vote for Whitmer if the election were held that day, compared with 36.1 percent for Schuette. Another 4 percent of voters said they would pick a third-party candidate, including 2.3 percent who would back Libertarian Bill Gelineau, and 10 percent were undecided.


Whitmer, the former state Senate minority leader from East Lansing, had a 13.8-percentage-point advantage among self-described independents, a coveted voting bloc that can help swing close elections. Independents viewed Schuette unfavorably by a 2-1 margin.

“Michigan governors get elected by independents in Southeast Michigan, and right now, Bill Schuette has got to do something very quickly to change the way independents view him,” said Richard Czuba of Lansing-based Glengariff Group Inc., which conducted the survey.

“We’re seeing across the state that independents are harshly viewing Bill Schuette, and you can’t win (a competitive race) if independents don’t like you in Michigan.”


https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/09/11/michigan-whitmer-schuette-governor-poll-september/1256313002/


GRETCHEN WHITMER






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