In the Nov. 3 race for Michigan governor, a new poll indicated that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee, holds a narrow lead over Republican U.S. Rep. John James, 45%-41%, with 14% undecided.
The independent, nonpartisan poll of 600 likely Michigan voters was released over the weekend by EPIC-MRA of Lansing and has a margin of error or plus or minus 4 percentage points. As such, the poll suggests Benson is at worst tied with James at this point in the race to replace Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is term-limited.
For the poll, EPIC-MRA surveyed likely voters between Aug. 22-28.
While the poll indicated Benson likely has the lead at this point, it also suggested that she may be slightly lagging her Democratic colleague
at the top of the ticket: U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who the same poll showed leading Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake 47%-43% with 10% undecided.
El-Sayed was involved in a fractious Democratic primary for his nomination while Benson, of Detroit, largely coasted to her nomination victory on Aug. 4. Since then, most polls have shown her comfortably ahead of James, of Shelby Township, and the RealClearPolling.com average of polls in the raceshowed her with a 6-point lead as of Aug. 31.
"I was kind of surprised that El-Sayed is leading Rogers by more than Benson is leading over James," said pollster Bernie Porn, adding that El-Sayed may have been helped by the sheer amount of attention showered on his race to date. "The governor’s race is going to be more competitive than maybe people expected," he added.
The poll showed Benson doing better with voters under age 50, with 49% supporting her, 34% for James and 17% undecided; while James did better with voters over 50, 47%-42% with 11% undecided. That was well below the 55% of support El-Sayed got from voters under 50, however.
White voters supported James, who is a Black businessman and two-term congressman, 48%-41%, with 11% undecided, compared to Black voters, who supported Benson 79%-3% with 18% undecided. Male voters backed James 52%-37% with 11% undecided compared to women, who backed Benson 53%-31% with 16% undecided. While party-line voters and independents who lean toward either party overwhelmingly favored their partisan nominee, self-described nonpartisan independents were split 30% for James, 27% for Benson and a whopping 42% undecided.
Benson held an enormous lead in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties combined, 53%-35%, with 12% undecided, while James led in the rest of the state, 45%-41% with 14% undecided.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Benson holds 45%-41% lead over James in new governor's race poll
