Alan Grayson leads Patrick Murphy in Vox survey as Democrats fear run for Rubio seat
The headline at Fox is that Democrats fear that Alan Grayson will challenge Patrick Murphy for the vacant Marco Rubio Senate seat, seeing Grayson has too inflammatory to win the general election.
“I can’t support Alan Grayson,” said Rachel Pienta, a member of the state Democratic Party’s executive committee tells Fox. “If Alan Grayson gets in and if Alan Grayson somehow manages to pull off the primary win, we lose the Senate seat.”
A new survey conducted by Vox Populi Polling among Democrat primary voters in Florida found that Rep. Alan Grayson is poised to pull off an upset against Rep. Patrick Murphy in the race for Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate seat.
While Murphy leads Grayson on the initial ballot test by 34-24 percent, his lead dissipates once voters learn more about the candidates. Once informed, voters prefer Grayson 56-21 percent, with 24 percent of voters undecided.
“Marco Rubio stepping down from the U.S. Senate to run for president ensures that the race to replace him in 2016 will be one of the most contested in the country.” said Vox Populi Polling Pollster Brent Seaborn. “Democrats will have a tough primary on their hands if Reps. Grayson and Murphy run against each other. As voters learn more about the two candidates, Grayson is well positioned to pull off what would be a major upset to Democrats.”
Congressman Alan Grayson
Image/US Congress
Grayson says he’s probably running and will make an announcement in July and doesn’t care about what party leaders think.
“The only Democrats that matter are the voters. It’s clear to me that if there’s a contested primary, we’ll win. We’ll have the black vote, the gay vote, the Hispanic vote, the labor vote and the liberal vote,” he said. “We’ll have it all.”
Fox recounted how Grayson made headlines for describing the GOP health plan as “don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.” He called a Republic opponent “Taliban Dan” in an effort to paint him as a religious extremist, compared the tea party to the Klu Klux Klan and called his estranged wife a gold digger during an explosive divorce.
Other key findings include:
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37 percent of Democrat voters have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of Grayson compared to 36 percent who view Murphy favorably.
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Grayson leads in name recognition, with 42 percent of voters saying they are not aware of Grayson compared to 47 percent who are unaware of Murphy.
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When voters learned that Grayson opposed food stamp cuts and Murphy supported them, 57 percent of voters were more inclined to support Grayson.
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When hearing that Grayson supported a more progressive budget and Murphy opposed it, 66 percent of voters were more likely to vote for Grayson.
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75 percent said it was either very important or somewhat important to have a progressive nominee who will stand up to big corporations and Wall Street.
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56 percent of voters were either somewhat or much less likely to support Murphy when they found out he is a former Republican who donated to Romney.
