Poll suggests Murphy lead in race

In a recent University of Connecticut-Hartford Courant poll of likely voters released Wednesday, results show that the Democratic Party has a slight lead, but the Senate race in Connecticut is very close.

Chris Murphy, the Democratic nominee, has a slight edge with 37 percent of likely candidates voting for him in the poll. Linda McMahon, the Republican candidate, received 33 percent of the votes in the poll. 28 percent of people were undecided.

Because polls are given a certain margin of error, it is possible that the results are closer than once believed. This is especially exemplified by the fact that there is such a large percentage of likely voters who are undecided despite the great amount of commercials on television and mailers sent to people across the state for both candidates.

Yoshie Altamirano, a 3rd-semester exploratory major student, said, “I think that as college students it is our job to vote and express our opinions because we really are the voice of the future. If everyone just assumes that they shouldn’t become educated and vote, then no one is really helping.”
However, though these results are still very close, there is a chance that Murphy has the advantage thus far. This is because 27 percent of people who are registered as Democrats have not made up their minds yet on whom to vote for and are still in the “undecided” category, whereas only 17 percent of Republicans have declared themselves undecided. McMahon is leading in votes in the Eastern potion of the state, whereas Murphy holds a strong lead in Hartford County. The closest race is in the Western part of the state, where 36 percent of votes are for McMahon, 38 percent are for Murphy, and 25 percent are still undecided.

Though poll results do not seem to display a gender gap between candidates, there does seem to be a difference in preference of candidates depending on voter age. The statistics show that almost 50 percent of potential voters 65 and older are leaning towards McMahon, whereas Murphy has about 34 percent of this age group. However, Murphy is leading in support so far with voters between ages 50 to 64.

For more information regarding polls, not only about the Senate race, but all upcoming elections, visit poll.uconn.edu.