Uninterested Ducey would lead GOP in U.S. Senate primary, per poll
February 2, 2022Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who has repeatedly shot down questions about throwing his hat in the ring, would be the immediate frontrunner in the U.S. Senate Republican primary, a new poll shows.
A poll released by Arizona Public Opinion Pulse conducted by OH Predictive Insights Tuesday found that 35% of Republicans would support Ducey in their state’s U.S. Senate primary this year. That would put him ahead of the state’s attorney general, Mark Brnovich; 13% of Republicans say they’d back Brnovich if Ducey runs. However, if Ducey does not run, 28% say they would back Brnovich, making him the frontrunner.
“Brnovich remains the frontrunner, but ‘what if’s like ‘what if Ducey decides to run?’ or, ‘what if Trump decides to endorse a candidate?’ could really change the current dynamic of the GOP Primary,” OHPI chief of research Mike Noble said. “It makes a lot of sense now why Republican Leadership has been actively pursuing Ducey to run in the Arizona Senate contest.”
Whoever ends up winning the Republican primary will most likely end up running against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona). The poll found that Kelly has a slight edge over a generic Republican: 42% to 39%. However, that result fell within the poll’s 3.4% margin of error.
OHPI contacted 855 registered Arizona voters between Jan. 11-13.
“Arizona voters should prepare themselves to be bombarded with millions of dollars in mailers, attack ads, and robocalls,” Noble said in the press release. “With the Senate evenly divided, both parties will be spending big bucks in the Grand Canyon state this fall.”
Kelly won a tight election in 2020; he got 51.2% of the vote as incumbent Republican Martha McSally got 48.8%. While McSally had held the post since 2019 after a Ducey appointment, she lost to Kelly in the special election to fill the remainder of Republican John McCain’s term. McCain died of brain cancer in August 2018.
This article was originally posted on Uninterested Ducey would lead GOP in U.S. Senate primary, per poll
