(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/11/2022) The race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination has taken a turn in favor of commentator and former news personality Tudor Dixon, according to a new survey conducted by Mitchell Communications & Research and commissioned by MIRS.
With the help of the triple crown of GOP endorsements from Right to Life of Michigan, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the powerful DeVos family, Dixon is holding an 11% lead over her rivals with 26% of the vote.
Chiropractor Garrett Soldano and businessman Kevin Rinke each hold 13% and real estate agent Ryan Kelley is tracking at 15% of the vote in a virtual dead heat for second place.
The fifth GOP candidate, Rev. Ralph Rebandt, is polling at 1%.
The poll also showed a significant decrease in the percentage of GOP voters who are undecided in the race. A June 21-22 Mitchell survey found 46% of likely primary voters were undecided. This survey found that number down to 33%.
“Tudor Dixon has moved into a double-digit 11% lead over her closest competitors because of strong support from voters in the Detroit (TV media market), where she’s getting 35% of the vote, from absentee voters who have already voted (39%), voters who plan to vote by absentee ballot (29%), men (32%) and voters who are 65 years old and older (31%). While her opponents have stayed in almost the same position as they were two and half weeks ago, Dixon has taken off,” said Steve Mitchell, president of Mitchell Research.
Mitchell did note that Dixon is showing a weak spot in the polling results, which is her support among women. While she leads among women overall, among women under the age of 65 she is holding 11% of the vote compared to 25% for Soldano and 16% for Kelley.
Regionally, Rinke is leading in the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City market, while Kelley leads with 18 to 44 year-old voters, and in the Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek market with 23%. In that market, Soldano is at 22% and Dixon is at 20%.
The poll also asked likely voters if they watched last week’s WOOD-TV debate among the candidates.
Two-thirds of respondents (65%) did not watch and another 12% were not sure who won. Of the 16% who said they watched and identified a winner, Dixon had 8%, Soldano 8%, Kelley 5%, with Rinke garnering 2%.
The poll used a combination of IVR (automated) surveys to landlines (50%) and text messaging to cell phones directing the cell phone users to a SurveyMonkey poll (50%). The survey of 683 Likely Voters was conducted on July 7-8, 2022 and has a Margin of Error of + or – 3.75% at a 95% level of confidence.
Mitchell is the guest on the MIRS' Monday Podcast.
