A recently released survey shows most Arizonans are not happy with their choices for higher office next year.
Noble Predictive Insights contacted a thousand voters in an online survey asking for their opinions on potential Presidential and U.S. Senate candidates and if that opinion was favorable or unfavorable.
The two most likely candidates for President, Joe Biden and Donald Trump were both viewed unfavorably by most survey respondents. A little under 60% viewed both men unfavorably, although Trump was viewed slightly more favorably overall.
There was a little more variation in U.S. Senate candidates. Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Mark Lamb were both viewed more favorably than unfavorably. The tradeoff was both candidates were also less well-known than their potential rivals. Current Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema was slightly underwater with 46% having an unfavorable opinion and 39% having a favorable one. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was the only one of the four to be viewed unfavorably by a majority.
Even though most Arizonans are sour on their choices, nearly all the negative opinions come from voters on the opposite side of the political divide from the candidate. Four politicians stood out as having a problem with base voters, however. One in five Arizonans who identify as politically liberal were unfavorable to Biden. The number was higher for Lake and Trump as one in four political conservatives had an unfavorable opinion of them. After her party switch earlier this year, Sinema does not have a solid political base of support, but 40% of moderates had an unfavorable opinion of her.
The pollster Mike Noble told ABC 15 that the base problem for the Republican candidates is more prominent.
“This division we’re seeing in the GOP really comes down to two groups,” Noble said. “You have the party supporters, and you have the Trump, or MAGA supporters. You can see very clearly in the data that the two don’t align.”
Noble asked three questions of Republican supporters only 61% of them said Donald Trump was the undisputed leader of the Republican party. They were split down the middle between those that see themselves as supporters of Trump and the party, or just the party itself. 57% of Republicans thought it will be more important to motivate conservative Republicans to win next year instead of appealing to moderates and independents.
