With ballots hitting mailboxes soon for the U.S. Senate Republican primary election it’s still anyone’s game, but an internal poll conducted by Joe O’Dea’s campaign sheds some light on the state of the race.
According to the survey conducted May 15-20, the vast majority of primary voters are uncommitted, but O’Dea has a head start among voters that are either committed or leaning towards a particular candidate.
The Colorado Sun reports:
Fifty-nine percent of those polled said they had heard of O’Dea, with 34% saying they have a favorable view of him. Forty percent said they had heard of Hanks, with 15% saying they have a favorable view of him.
When asked who they would vote for if the primary were held today, 11% said definitely O’Dea, while 22% said probably O’Dea and 5% said they lean toward O’Dea, for a total of 38%. Four percent said definitely Hanks, while 9% said probably Hanks and 1% said they lean toward Hanks, for a total of 14%.
A large percentage of undecideds isn’t entirely surprising considering both O’Dea and state Rep. Ron Hanks are first time candidates for statewide office, so there is still plenty of time for the race to further take shape.
One other noteworthy finding in the poll was how primary voters ranked their most important issues.
Unfortunately for the media and everyone else focused on relitigating the last election, 44% of primary voters listed inflation and cost of living as their most important issue, far outpacing other responses.
In Colorado inflation has the potential to be an even more salient issue for Republican primary voters considering price increases are climbing even higher than national averages, coming in at 9.1% in the Denver metro area year over year.
Bidenflation cost the average household $569 last month, and is projected to cost a whopping $6,829 over the next 12 months.
It’s not hard to imagine the winning candidate in the Senate race could largely be determined by which candidate is able to credibly convince voters that they could actually beat Michael Bennet and do something about out of control inflation.
Bennet meanwhile still looks flummoxed along with President Biden in the face of the worst price increases America has experienced over the last 40 years.
The president’s apparent reaction to his dismal approval ratings over his handling of the economy is to… get out on the road more because taxpayers are footing the bill for his gasoline.
We can only hope that means seeing more of Biden at Bennet’s side in Colorado.
There’s no better way to remind voters the reason price increases are surging at their current velocity is because Democrats somehow thought it would be a good idea to dump another $1.9 trillion into an already overheating economy last year.
If the president wants to remind voters on behalf of Hanks or O’Dea that he and Bennet are the reason Coloradans can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks or buy groceries like they used to, more power to him.