Walker, Trump, Bush lead Minnesota GOP presidential bid

A new poll of Minnesota voters finds a tight race for the Republican presidential nomination in the state.

The poll by Public Policy Polling found that 19 percent of those surveyed favored Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, while 18 percent favored businessman Donald Trump and 15 percent supported former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson had the backing of 11 percent of the respondents.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton had 50 percent support while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had 32 percent. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley polled at 4 percent.

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Public Policy Polling surveyed 1,015 registered voters, including 426 Democratic primary voters and 353 Republican primary voters from July 30 to Aug. 2. The margin of error for the overall survey is +/-3.1 percent, for the Democrats it’s +/-4.9 percent, and for the Republicans it’s +/-5.2 percent.

In a head to head match-up, Clinton had a small lead over her Republican opponents. Clinton had a 1 percentage point lead over Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (43/42) and has a 2 point lead in head to head match-ups with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Clinton had a 4  point lead over Walker.

The survey also finds that all of the candidates in both parties have higher unfavorable than favorable ratings, with the exception of Bernie Sanders whom 30 percent view favorably and 29 percent view unfavorably.

Forty-eight percent of those polled disapproved of President Obama’s job performance while 44 percent approved of the job he’s doing.

PPP’s Pollster Tom Jensen said the Minnesota contest for the White House appears to be more in line with 2004. That year, President George W. Bush was running against Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Bush spent significant resources in Minnesota with the hopes of winning the state but Kerry won by 3 percentage points.