A new Quinnipiac University poll on Connecticut’s U.S. Senate race offers a glimpse into who may be on the ballot come November.
On the Democratic side, current U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy earned support from 37 percent of respondents while Susan Bysiewicz ’83, the former secretary of the state, has the support of 25 percent of respondents. State Rep. William Tong earned four percent. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, professional wrestling magnate Linda McMahon leads challenger Chris Shays, 51-42.
It’s an improvement on the last Quinnipiac poll for Shays — in September, McMahon ran ahead of Shays, 50-35. And even though the Qunnipiac poll shows him behind in the primary, the poll indicates Shays would defeat both Bysiewicz and Tong by sizable margins and only trails Murphy by one percentage point. McMahon, meanwhile, would lose to both Murphy and Bysiewicz and only edges out Tong by a 4 point margin.
The poll also found an overwhelming amount of support for presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the GOP primary election, who earns 42 percent of Republican support to Rick Santorum’s 19 percent. Still, president Obama would defeat both Romney and Santorum by double-digit margins in Connecticut, the poll finds.