A new poll shows Democrat Tim Walz leading Republican Jeff Johnson in Minnesota’s gubernatorial race, though both candidates are trying to win over a large percentage of undecided voters.
According to a new MPR News and Star Tribune poll, 45 percent of likely voters favor Walz, while 36 percent said they plan to support Johnson in the election. Walz, who was leading Johnson by 7 points in KSTP’s recent poll, now has a 9 point advantage, but 16 percent (a 6 point increase from KSTP’s poll) of voters are still undecided, and 3 percent plan to support alternative candidates.
“This race is far from over. Like many races, it looks like this will come down to the independents, those unaffiliated voters,” APM Research Lab managing partner Craig Helmstetter told MPR News.
Both candidates are struggling with name recognition among voters, with 19 percent of respondents saying they are unfamiliar with Johnson’s name, and 18 percent not recognizing Walz’s name.
Although the poll shows stronger numbers for Walz, some believe Johnson has the upper hand when it comes to name recognition, since his opponent has never participated in a statewide election.
“I think the race is wide-open because a lot of voters don’t really know the candidates that well, particularly Tim Walz,” political scientist Steven Schier told KSTP.
Overall, likely voters ranked health care (25 percent) and public education (18 percent) as their “top issues” in the gubernatorial race, two areas where the candidates strongly disagree.
Walz has repeatedly called health care a “moral right” and supports a single-payer system, though Johnson wants to increase choice for Minnesotans and hopes to take advantage of federal waivers that would allow Minnesotans to “abandon the provisions of Obamacare.”
On the issue of education, Johnson supports school-choice programs that would provide vouchers and tax credits to parents, and would move the state towards a charter-school model. Walz, on the other hand, wants to “nix vouchers” entirely and plans to provide 2 years of tuition-free college at Minnesota’s public institutions.
For Johnson supporters, 25 percent ranked immigration as the top issue in the race, while health care remained the top priority among likely Walz voters.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
