Texas Governor Rick Perry has been in the race for less than a week, but according to a new poll, he leads the current field of Republican contenders such as Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and Ron Paul to possibly clinch the Republican nomination and face President Barack Obama in the general elections in 2012.
Rasmussen Reports surveyed likely Republican primary votes on Monday night, just days after the Iowa debate on Thursday and two days after the Iowa straw poll that saw Michele Bachmann just edging Ron Paul. The poll comes just two days after Perry officially announced he was running on Saturday.
29% of those surveyed say they that Perry has their support, while 18% say former Massachusetts Governor Romney is their candidate of choice — a gap of 11%, but an increase of 38%. U.S. Rep. Bachmann came in at 13%, while libertarian Texas Rep. Ron Paul took fourth with 9%.
Just two weeks ago, Romney lead the field in the same poll by Rasumussen, hitting 22% of the vote, followed by Perry’s 18% and Bachmann’s 16%.
Amongst likely Tea Party primary voters, 39% say they will likely vote for Perry, while 21% say they want Bachmann to win. Perry also led amongst non-Tea Party Republicans, with 27% of the vote, also beating Romney’s 24%.
Perry has been dubbed by many Republicans as being able to reach out to both Tea Party and Evangelical voters while also being able to get the support by mainstream Republicans, and this poll shows that.
However, Scott Rasmussen notes that Perry may just be enjoying a temporary bump because of all the coverage he garnered leading up to and after his announcement. “Governor Perry is enjoying a bounce from entering the race at precisely the right time,” he said.
“Now the difficult part begins for the new frontrunner. It’s much easier winning support when people are hoping you will get in the race, than retaining support when you are the frontrunner.”
69% of voters hold a favorable view of the Texas Gov., with 38% saying they have a very favorable view. While Mitt Romney has a larger overall favorable rating of 77%, he has less overall enthusiasm for his campaign as only 21% say they have a very favorable view of him.
The 1,000 polled say that they have a 71% favorable view of Bachmann and 32% say they have a very favorable view of her. Paul is a mixed bag within the nationwide GOP voters with 43% say they view him favorable and 45% say they view him unfavorably.
One-in-four primary voters say they are not very aware of businessman Herman Cain, former Senator Rick Santorum, and former Governor Jon Huntsman to give an opinion of them.
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