SCSU Release Political Poll Results

(KNSI) – Saint Cloud State University’s poll shows a significant advantage for the Democratic candidates for statewide office.

Political Science Department Chair Jim Cottrill says there are some reasons to be leery of the results. The poll was only able to record 235 responses from likely voters and it comes with a margin of error of 8 percent. Cottrill calls the data squishy and says Republican voters were hard to reach, in particular.

“So, one of the things that I’ve been trying to do is correct for that as best I can to try to accurately estimate conservative opinion in the state of Minnesota. It’s been very challenging though and the results of our survey, I would tell people to read with a bit of caution.”

Cottrill says Minnesotans are much more likely than the rest of the country to say their state is on the right track with 40% approving. However, the number of voters who disapprove of its direction is up significantly since 2018 to 46%. Those voters are hard to reach by phone but they have a strong motivation to cast a ballot.

Cottrill is willing to make some predictions about the race. He says voters are not real familiar with some of the second-tier statewide offices, even the basics like what they’re responsible for. He does not believe people will pick and choose candidates as some other polls are suggesting.

“I would be surprised if there’s significant ticket splitting given the level of polarization that we have right now. The ‘Don’t Know’ response for the Secretary of State race was larger than for the Republican candidate. We had 31% who said they don’t know who they’re going to vote for and we had 21% on Attorney General.”

A KSTP/SurveyUSA poll released a week ago showed Walz and Secretary of State Steve Simon ahead, contrasted by leads for GOP AG candidate Jim Schultz and Republican Auditor hopeful Ryan Wilson. Cottrill says whichever side has a better turnout will most likely see success down ballot as well.

SCSU Fall Survey Results:

Governor
Tim Walz (D)…………………………56%
Scott Jensen (R)…………………….40%
Other……………………………………4%

Attorney General
Keith Ellison (D)…………………….52%
Jim Schultz (R)………………………40%
Other…………………………………….8%

Secretary of State
Steve Simon (D)……………………..52%
Kim Crockett (R)…………………….37%
Other…………………………………….11%

The number of undecideds for each race ranged from 13% in the governor’s race to 31% in the secretary of state’s contest.

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