Tea Party Conservative Sharron Angle Drops In The Polls

After an initial post-primary poll showing her with an eleven point lead over Harry Reid, Sharron Angle has dropped in the polls:

Sharron Angle’s modest bounce after her Republican Primary win appears to be over, but she still holds a slight lead over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Nevada shows Angle earning 48% support, while Reid, the state’s longtime Democratic senator, picks up 41% of the vote. Eight percent (8%) like some other candidate in the race, while just two percent (2%) are undecided.

Two weeks ago, coming off her primary victory, Angle posted a 50% to 39% lead over Reid, who many consider one of the most vulnerable congressional incumbents in the country.

This returns the contest to where it’s been in surveys for months where Angle, a Christian conservative, ran weakest of the three Republicans seeking their party’s Senate nomination in match-ups with Reid.

Prior to the findings two weeks ago, Angle’s support in surveys stretching back to December has ranged from 44% to 48%, while Reid has earned 38% to 43% of the vote. In April, Angle held a 48% to 40% lead over the Democrat.

What’s most significant, I think, is that Angle dropped in the polls while Reid’s numbers rose, albeit modestly in both cases.

This makes the Rasmussen polls more consistent with other polls that have showed the race to be much closer.

Its far too early to count Harry Reid out of this race.

FILED UNDER: 2010 Election, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Rick DeMent says:

    My sense is that once Tea Party candidates have to actually start taking about policies that they support rather then what they are against, their numbers will start to drop. Right now the “Tea Party” is anything anyone wants it to be because all they have is fairly unfocused rage at big government. Government sucks therefor vote for me is pretty thin gruel for a campaign. Sooner or later they have to support something and every time they do they will peel off more support.

  2. Zelsdorf Ragshaft III says:

    Doug the Dem. Cherry picking is a valid occupation. According to Real Clear Politics today, which has affiliations to Time Mag. indicates a 7 point lead for Angle. Further prying will find Reid’s son Rory is not using his last name in his ads in his bid for Governor. Doug, how long ago did you quit your job as a blogger at the Daily Kos?

  3. Juneau: says:

    This is funny… a relatively unknown conservative leads the current Senate Majority leader by 8 points with 120 days to go until the election – and the headline focuses on a miniscule drop in her polls. Lemonade anyone?

  4. bains says:

    My sense is that once Tea Party candidates have to actually start taking about policies that they support rather then what they are against, their numbers will start to drop. Right now the “Tea Party” is anything anyone wants it to be because all they have is fairly unfocused rage at big government.

    I suppose this is true. After all, if I change just a few words:

    My sense is that once Democratic candidates actually start enacting policies that they support rather then what they are against, their numbers will start to drop. In 2008, Obama was anything anyone wants it to be because all they have is fairly unfocused rage at President Bush

    we find ourselves where we are today. The biggest difference, however, is that Tea Party candidates have an adversarial media, whereas Obama had (still has) a jubilantly supportive media.

    As said above, and clearly something that Doug wants to bury, a relative nobody who polled the worst of three GOP candidates sits 7 points ahead of Senate Leader Reid.