(WHTM) – Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro continues to hold a double digit lead over his Republican competitor in the race to become Pennsylvania’s next Governor.
In a new Marist poll Shapiro lead State Senator Doug Mastriano 53% to 40% with 6% undecided. Shapiro also led among Independent voters by 30%, though 11% were undecided.
The poll supports other recent studies showing Shapiro leading between 11-15%, though two polls conducted by Emerson College and Trafalgar have shown a tighter race with Shapiro leading by just 2-3%.
Similar to Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, Mastriano’s largest support groups were among voters in central Pennsylvania, white non-college educated voters, and white evangelical Christians.
Shapiro led among all other voters by region, household income, ethnicity, and age.
Only 3% of voters who strongly support a candidate said they might vote differently.
Forty percent of Pennsylvanians said inflation is their top issue, followed by preserving democracy (29%), abortion (16%), immigration (7%), and health care (7%). More than half of Republicans cited inflation as their biggest issue (56%) and 40% of Democrats said preserving democracy is atop their minds.
President Joe Biden’s approval rating in the poll was 42% with 52% disapproving and 6% unsure. More than 90% of Republicans disapproved and 82% of Democrats approved of the President’s job performance.
Polling Methodology
This survey of 1,356 Pennsylvania adults was conducted September 19th through September 22nd, 2022 by the Marist Poll. Adults 18 years of age and older residing in the state of Pennsylvania were contacted through a multi-mode design: By phone using live interviewers, by text, or online. The sampling frames include RDD plus listed landline, cell phone sample based on billing address to account for inward and outward mobility within a state, and aggregated online research panels. Survey questions were available in English or Spanish. Phone and online samples were selected to ensure that each region was represented in proportion to its population. The samples were then combined and balanced to reflect the 2020 American Community Survey 5-year estimates for age, gender, income, and race. Regional adjustments were made for turnout in similar elections. Results are statistically significant within ±3.3 percentage points. There are 1,242 registered voters. The results for this subset are statistically significant within ±3.5 percentage points. There are 1,043 registered voters who definitely plan to vote in November’s election. The results for this subset are statistically significant within ±3.8 percentage points. Tables include results for subgroups to only display crosstabs with an acceptable sampling error. It should be noted that although you may not see results listed for a certain group, it does not mean interviews were not completed with those individuals. It simply means the sample size is too small to report. The error margin was adjusted for sample weights and increases for cross-tabulations.