White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. – If U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., were to run for Governor and the race was between him and Republican Gov. Jim Justice, Manchin would defeat Justice by 10 points, according to the latest edition of the MetroNews West Virginia Poll.
Manchin has mentioned that he is considering another run for the state’s highest office, but hasn’t yet made a decision.
Manchin leads Justice, 49 percent to 39 percent, with 12 percent undecided. Rex Repass, president of Research America Inc., reported the results today at the West Virginia Business Summit and Annual Meeting of the state’s Chamber of Commerce at the Greenbrier Resort.
“Senator Manchin’s personality and message resonates with West Virginia voters,” Repass said. “He’s a former two term governor, has been in the Senate since 2010 and has a record that aligns with many West Virginia voters.”
Manchin’s job approval ratings also have increased, from 43 percent in 2018 to 49 percent in 2019. This increase comes after his job approval ratings were at a five-year low last year. Justice’s job approval rating is 42 percent, unchanged from a year ago.
“Senator Manchin remains popular among registered voters in West Virginia. If he were to make another run for governor, the race would likely tighten-up tightened-up given President Trump’s majority approval rating in the state.” Repass added.
The MetroNews West Virginia Poll also asked registered a sub-sample of voters about the candidates from the Republican Party who announced a run for governor. Justice leads Woody Thrasher, 53 percent to 19 percent. Mike Folk received 12 percent of the Republican and Independent votes while 17 percent were not sure.
Registered voters were also asked to rate national and other state political leaders on job performance. President Donald Trump’s job approval rating is 54 percent, a decrease of six percentage points from Aug. 2018. In the 2016 election Trump won West Virginia with 68.5 percent of the vote.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore-Capito’s job approval rating is 51 percent, unchanged from a year ago.
The poll was conducted between August 14-22 with a sample of 501 registerd voters. The overall confidence interval for the survey is +/- 4.4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. The confidence interval varies for individual questions based on how registered voters respondend.
Methodology Statement
Results of this edition of MetroNews West Virginia Poll are based on interviews conducted between August 14-22, 2018 with a sample of 501 registered voters in West Virginia including registered Democrats, Republicans, Libertarian, Mountain Party, and unaffiliated or independent voters. Data collection was completed online with purchased sample of registerd voters.
Registered voters in all 55 West Virginia counties were sampled for the survey and modeled to the number of registered voters based on data from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office.
When using sample of registered voters and online data collection it is not appropriate to apply a probability-based margin of error to interviews completed. However, applying statistical tests of significance to each question asked at the 95 percent confidence interval yields an overall statistical error of +/- 4.4 percentage points based on the 501 interviews. The 95 percent confidence interval varies by question.
The purpose of the West Virginia Poll is to provide a snapshot of opinion and timely voter views in the Mountain State. The media sponsor of the West Virginia Poll is MetroNews Radio Network.
Rex Repass is director of the West Virginia Poll and president of Research America Inc. Repass is responsible for questionnaire design, the respondent screening and selection process, data tabulation, statistical analysis, and reporting of results.
The MetroNews West Virginia Poll is a non-partisan survey of public opinion conducted by Repass and Research America Inc. The West Virginia Poll has been directed by Repass and conducted periodically since January 21, 1980. The name The West Virginia Poll is a trademark owned by Research America Inc., all rights reserved.