Senator Gary Peters has a slight edge on John James in the bid for US Senate

LANSING, Mich. – A year out from the 2020 election, Gary Peters has a slight edge over his presumed Republican rival, John James, according to a recent poll commissioned and conducted by Marketing Resource Group, LLC.  

In a statewide poll of 600 likely voters, the poll showed Senator Gary Peters with 43 percent support and John James with 40 percent support. 17 percent were undecided.

The results of a question measuring the name identification and perception of the candidates showed 75 percent of the voters were aware of Peters with 20 percent having a favorable opinion of him and 15 percent having a negative opinion. 64 percent of the voters were aware of John James with 22 percent having a favorable opinion of him and ten percent negative.

“John James’ campaign against Senator Stabenow in 2018 appears to have propelled him into a virtual tie with Senator Peters in 2020,” said Tom Shields, MRG’s Senior Advisor. “This is certainly shaping up to be one of the closest watched US Senate races in the country next year.”

Gary Peters’ strongest support comes from Democrats, union households, and those living in Wayne County, Oakland County and the Tri-Cities area of the state. John James’ strongest support comes from Republicans, voters over 65 years of age, and those living in Macomb County, Mid-Michigan and Northern Michigan.

The actual wording of the questions related to the US Senate Race, John James, and Gary Peters is below:

If the election for U.S. Senate was held today, would you vote for John James the Republican or Gary Peters the Democrat?

                                                                                                Percent

                                                Vote John James                      34.3%

                                                Lean John James                        5.3%

                                                Vote Gary Peters                      35.8%

                                                Lean Gary Peters                      7.2%

                                                Don’t know                             16.8%

                                                Refused                                      0.5%

                                                Total John James                    40%

                                                Total Gary Peters                  43%

Party Identification and Gender

	GOP	IND	DEM		MEN	WOMEN
Vote James	88%	29%	3%		41%	38%
Vote Peters	4%	37%	83%		42%	44%
Undecided	8%	34%	14%		17%	18%

Now, I’m going to read you the names of some people in the news, and I’d like you to rate your feelings toward each one as very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative.  If you don’t know the name, please just say so.

                                     John James                                                    Percent

                                     Very Positive                                                 11.8 %

                                     Somewhat Positive                                      10.5 %

                                     Neutral                                                           20.8 %

                                     Somewhat Negative                                      6.0 %

                                     Very Negative                                                 3.8 %

                                     Never Heard of                                             36.5 %

                                     Don’t Know                                                   10.3 %

                                     Refused                                                           0.2 %

                                                  Aware of James:             64%

                                                  Total James Positive:     22%

                                                  Total James Negative:   10%

                                    Gary Peters                                                     Percent

                                    Very Positive                                                    5.7 %

                                    Somewhat Positive                                        14.3 %

                                    Neutral                                                            30.5 %

                                    Somewhat Negative                                         8.7 %

                                    Very Negative                                                   6.5 %

                                    Never Heard of                                               25.3 %

                                    Don’t Know                                                      8.8 %

                                    Refused                                                             0.2 %

                                                 Aware of Peters:             75%

                                                 Total Peters Positive:     20%

                                                 Total Peters Negative:    15%

If anyone in the media would like additional numbers or cross tabs, please do not hesitate to contact us.

MRG Michigan Poll® Fall 2019

None of the questions released in this press advisory were paid for or sponsored by outside third parties. The data belongs to MRG and is being released to the public.

The +5% Dem survey of 600 likely Michigan voters was conducted by live interview October 7– October 10 2019. The sample was randomly drawn from a listed sample of all registered voters with a history of voting and stratified by city and township to reflect voter turnout. Thirty percent of the sample was conducted with cell phone users. In addition, quotas for gender and cell phone interviews were met within each geographic area, and extra efforts were made to reach African Americans.

A sample of 600 likely voters in Michigan yields a sampling margin of error of ±4 percent with a 95 percent confidence interval. The sampling margin of error for subgroups may be higher depending on the size of the subgroup.

About Marketing Resource Group

Lansing, Michigan-based Marketing Resource Group (www.mrgmi.com) is an award-winning PR firm representing corporate, association, nonprofit, and private clients with interests in Michigan. MRG offers expertise in public affairs, communications, political campaign management, and public opinion survey research. For more than thirty years, MRG has conducted its bi-annual omnibus Michigan Poll®, tracking the pulse of Michigan voters on key statewide public policy and political issues. MRG is the only Michigan public opinion survey research firm that maintains nearly 35 years of trend analyses of voter attitudes related to state and national leaders, political parties, and the political and economic climate in Michigan.