U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal led his Republican opponent Leora Levy by 13 points in an Emerson College poll released Wednesday by WTNH and The Hill.
The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters between Sept. 7 and Sept. 9 and concluded that 48.8% of voters favored the two-term Democrat over Levy who received support from 36.1%. With less than two months until Election Day, 10.5% of voters remained undecided and 4.7% wished to vote for someone else.
The survey offers a snapshot of the race after Levy’s endorsement last month by former President Donald Trump and her primary victory over Republican convention-endorsed candidate Themis Klarides.
Around 53% of surveyed voters gave Blumenthal a very or somewhat favorable rating while around 42% gave him very or somewhat unfavorable marks and 4.8% were unsure. With two terms in the Senate after two decades as the state attorney general, only .2% of voters reported having never heard of Blumenthal.
Meanwhile, 15% said they had never heard of Levy, a Republican fundraiser and member of the party’s national committee. The poll suggests that 37.5% of voters held either very or somewhat favorable opinions of Levy while 28.8% held very or somewhat unfavorable opinions and 18.8% were unsure.
“We see Blumenthal again with over 50 percent favorability rating. And Levi is in around the high thirties. And so the Republican candidates start off with lower name recognition than the two incumbent Democrats,’’ Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “And they’re going to have to come out and define themselves in this race prior to the Democrats coming out and defining them.”
Wednesday’s U.S. Senate poll follows an Emerson College/WTNH/The Hill survey released Tuesday in the Connecticut governor’s race. That poll found incumbent Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont with a 10 point lead over Republican candidate Bob Stefanowski.
Democrats have worked to define Levy based on her endorsement by Trump and positions including her opposition to abortions, except in cases of incest, rape or life-threatening health complications.
Only about 7.3% of surveyed voters reported abortion access as the most important issue when they head to the polls in November. The economy was the most-cited concern by voters with 40.2%, saying it would be their number one issue this year. “Threats to democracy” was the second most cited issue, with 14.7% of voters saying it was their most important concern.
