A new poll published by Politico and conducted by Axis Research shows that Maine State Rep. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) currently has a two-point lead over incumbent Rep. Jared Golden (D) in the highly-competitive race for the Second Congressional District’s seat in the United States House of Representatives.
This represents a major change from the firm’s July poll, wherein Rep. Golden held a ten-point lead over the Republican State Representative.
This shift followed a significant change in the percentage of Mainers who are familiar with Rep. Theriault, rising from 39 percent in July to 72 percent in October.
This poll was conducted between October 17 and October 20 and has a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points.
Although Theriault’s lead is within this margin of error, the poll also shows that former President Donald Trump (R) has a nearly ten-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris (D) in the district.
When broken down by political affiliation, Theriault holds an overwhelming lead of 83 percent among Republicans, up from 75 percent in July. Golden’s lead among Democrats, however, has decreased from 89 percent to 84 percent during this same time period.
Independents are split evenly between the two candidate with 43 percent intending to support Theriault and 43 planning to back Golden. This is a marked shift from July when 52 percent said they would vote for Golden and just 31 percent were planning to support Theriault.
This marks a 12 point increase in support for Theriault among Independents in just a few months. As of October, 15 percent of Independents remain undecided.
Unfavorable news about Golden has been dominated by his stance on guns, having been mentioned in response to an open-ended question by 24 percent of respondents.
This was followed by his voting record at 17 percent and changes in his positions at 13 percent.
Among Republicans, the share of likely voters with an unfavorable opinion of Golden has skyrocketed since July, increasing 22 percent from 43 percent to 65 percent. Similarly, the percentage of Republicans who disapprove of the job Golden has done in office has jumped from 46 percent to 67 percent.
411 likely general election voters responded to the survey in one of several ways, including cell phone interviews (71 percent), text-to-web interviews (17 percent), and landline interviews (13 percent).
Click Here to Read the Full Results of the Poll
These result reflect those produced by the 64th Pan Atlantic Research poll in mid-September. In that poll, Theriault led Golden by three percent overall and five percent among those who felt they had made up their mind, as opposed to leaning toward one candidate or the other.
[RELATED: Dem Jared Golden Trails GOP’s Austin Theriault in ME-CD2 — Poll]
The survey was conducted from September 5 to September 15 and carried a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
Fingers crossed : Jared ( I only won because of ranked choice voting scheme ) Golden is on his way out the door . That would be a real gift to the people of Maine . Pray hard .
The southern ME liberal cockroaches haven’t completely corrupted the entire state, yet. Hopefully, Theriault wins to stop further encroachment.
Vote, vote, vote!
A 2 point lead ? Lmao….The democRAT’S ranked choice cheating will take care of that…too bad politicians aren’t deer. Maine people aren’t afraid to take care of them……
Vote red,… Take back our state,….
I don’t see how a State Rep can be responsible for so many large negative problems, i have never seen such a young man care for his grandparents the way Austin does
Golden’s got to GO!!! Too bad we can’t do that to Rochelle Johnson, (aka Chelli Pingree, who never met an illegal alien she didn’t like….as long as they don’t move to North Haven Island.