Former Governor Sonny Perdue leads the field in poll of 2014 United States Senate possibilities

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

GaPundit.com, publisher of Georgia’s leading email

newsletter about state and local politics, released the results of a telephone

poll of more than 1000 voters. Former Governor Sonny Perdue led the field with

22.4 percent.

“If Governor Sonny Perdue decides to run for the U.S.

Senate, he immediately becomes the front-runner, though it’s not a prohibitive

lead,” said Todd Rehm, Editor of GaPundit.com.

Candidates included in the survey were Perdue, former

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, current Secretary of State Brian Kemp,and Congressmen Paul Broun, Tom Graves, Tom Price and

Lynn Westmoreland.

Karen Handel, who ran for Governor in 2012 and led the GOP

Primary before losing to then-Congressman Nathan Deal, was in second place with

15 percent.

“Two facts come out of the poll: first, there is a clear

first tier; second, a Georgia Congressman can count on 6-11 percent support in

a statewide race as a starting point,” said Rehm.

Gender as a Factor

The following table shows that sixty

percent of Handel’s support comes from women, significantly higher than any

other potential candidate, and nearly 64% of undecided respondents are women,

showing some upside for Handel in a demographic that has been a weakness for

the GOP lately.

With an identical number of male

respondents choosing Handel and Congressman Tom Price, whose geographic bases

overlap, Handel’s lead over Price comes entirely from additional female votes.

At the same time, Governor Perdue’s

strong lead overall means that he still attracts more votes from women overall.

HHJ News