Among likely Republican primary voters in Maine, support for former President Donald Trump (R) is strong, and concerns over the border have heavily influenced the candidate many have chosen to back at the ballot box, according to a recent University of New Hampshire (UNH) Survey Center poll.
Among those likely to vote in the state’s Democrat primary, 75 percent indicated an intention to support incumbent President Joe Biden (D), while more than 20 percent were either planning support another candidate or are unsure of their voting plans.
Maine’s presidential primary is going to be one of seventeen jurisdictions participating in Super Tuesday this year — including sixteen states and one U.S. territory — which will be held on March 5.
According to the UNH poll released on this past Thursday, 77 percent of Republican voters in Maine intend to cast their primary ballots for former President Trump, while 19 percent indicated that they would be voting for former Governor of South Carolina and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
A combined 79 percent of voters said they would either be “enthusiastic” or satisfied if Trump were nominated, compared to 35 percent for former Ambassador Haley.
Although just 8 percent said they would be “dissatisfied” with a Trump nomination, this figure jumps up to 38 percent for Haley.
Respondents were also asked what the most important issues were to them when deciding who they would be supporting in the primary.
The combined category of “border/immigration” was — by a substantial margin — the most frequently-cited among voters, being named by 79 percent of respondents.
The second most commonly-noted concern among those surveyed was “cost of living,” playing a decisive role for 46 percent of voters. Coming in third place were “jobs/economy” at 33 percent.
Each mentioned by 25 percent of respondents were “protecting democracy or the Constitution,” “winning the 2024 presidential general election,” and “crime.”
As far as the state’s upcoming Democrat primary is concerned, 75 percent of voters intend to cast their ballots for President Biden and 3 percent for candidate Dean Phillips.
An additional 10 percent of voters said they would be voting for an unnamed candidate, and 11 percent of respondents were unsure how they would be voting in March.
If Biden were to win the state’s primary, 69 percent said they would be either “enthusiastic” or “satisfied,” compared to 13 percent for Phillips.
56 percent of Democrat primary voters surveyed said they were unsure how they would feel about it if Phillips were to prevail in the state.
Respondents were also asked to rate their feelings toward both Trump and Biden with respect to a number of different qualities.
Biden scored significantly better than Trump in the categories of “temperament” and “honesty and integrity,” while Trump prevailed in terms of his “ability to understand the problems facing people like you,” his “communication skills,” and his “physical and mental fitness.”
Results showed that the two candidates were roughly tied with each other in terms of their “decision-making” and “policy positions on major issues.”
The UNH Survey Center conducted this poll between February 15 and February 19 of this year and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percent.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25921 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25921">1 Comment
Trump is favored in the general election as well. I think it’s because his daughter married a Lebanese billionaire. Everyone likes the Lebanese people.