Obama 43%, Huntsman 35%
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is having difficulty gaining traction in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but he fares about the same as some of the top GOP contenders in a hypothetical matchup with President Obama.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds the president earning 43% of the vote to Huntsman’s 35% in a one-on-one matchup with the man who recently stepped down as Obama’s ambassador to China. Twelve percent (12%) like some other candidate in the race, and 10% are undecided. (To see question wording, click here.)
Obama posted a 44% to 28% lead over Huntsman in early July.
While the president continues to trail a generic Republican candidate in weekly Rasmussen Reports matchups, he earns 39% to 46% of the vote against named Republican challengers. Despite those relatively low levels of support, Obama has never trailed a Republican by more than three percentage points and has enjoyed large double-digit leads in some matchups.
Obama now leads Texas Governor Rick Perry, the frontrunner in the GOP contest, 46% to 39%. Perry’s chief rival for the nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney , holds a narrow 43% to 40% lead over the president. Another GOP hopeful, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann trails Obama by double digits.
The fact that Huntsman remains in the same ballpark as some of the top GOP hopefuls suggests that the presidential race remains a referendum on Obama. In all the matchups, a decent number of voters opt for a third option or are undecided. In last week’s surveys, among those who are undecided, just 34% approve of the way the president has handled his job, while 64% disapprove.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 16-17, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Related Articles
Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
To learn more about our methodology, click here.
