(Source: MIRS.news, Published Sept. 7, 2022) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's lead is growing, fueled by the abortion issue and cemented (for the moment) by female voters.
Polling commissioned by WDIV-TV and The Detroit News shows the incumbent Democrat at 48%, Republican challenger Tudor DIXON at 35% and third party candidates at 4%. The final 13% are undecided.
Glengariff pollster Richard Czuba said he believes the abortion issue is driving these numbers and the bad news for Republicans is that their hopes of inflation and the economy superseding abortion do not appear to be coming true.
Of the 600 likely voters polled Aug. 29-Sept 1, 34% list abortion as their top concern followed by inflation at 26% and education at 10%. The economy and jobs are at 8%.
The survey was done after the GOP nomination convention and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.
The two campaigns are divided on the abortion issue as the governor has 76% support from those who oppose the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, while Dixon has 74% of those who back the decision.
The GOP candidate has been peppered with negative ads on the abortion issue since the day after the Aug. 2 primary, noting that she is against the rape and incest exceptions. The polling data suggests that she is out of step with 80% of voters who favor those exceptions and out of step with 63% of "strong Republicans" who also back them.
Among independent voters, 43% side with the Governor and 20% with Dixon. Female independents are at 44% for the governor and 10% for the challenger.
On the gender front, Dixon gets 43% of the male vote while the governor gets 42%. The Governor has a 27-point lead with women voters 54%-27%.
Four years ago at this point in the campaign, candidate Whitmer was leading Republican nominee Bill Schuette by 14%. She ended up winning by 9.56 percentage points.
