A recent poll surveying likely voters in the Michigan governor’s race has Democratic candidate for governor Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson up over Republican candidate U.S. Rep. John James, with Independent former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan trailing.
The poll, conducted by national polling firm Impact Research, was commissioned Benson’s campaign. It shows Benson, the leader of Michigan’s Department of State, up on James by three points with Duggan taking about 20% of the vote total.
The polling, conducted from February 9 to 16 by Impact Research, indicates Benson has a lead in the race for governor based on a survey of 800 likely voters. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Benson has been seen as the Democratic front runner since she announced her bid to replace term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year. Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson is also running for governor as a Democrat.
Benson leads the field with 39% of the vote, ahead of John James’ 36%, and Mike Duggan’s 20%, with just 5% undecided. Benson’s campaign pointed to the polls showing the state’s election chief is also leading the rest of the field among Black voters, voters under 55 and voters with and without college degrees.
“It’s no surprise Jocelyn Benson is leading the race for governor,” said Benson Campaign Manager Nikki Goldschein. “Michiganders know her track record of making government work for the people and protecting our rights and freedoms. As voters continue to learn about her plans to lower costs and hold corporations accountable, her momentum continues to grow.”
Duggan’s campaign, which conducted its own internal poll last year and promoted a poll conducted by one of the endorsers of his campaign, questioned the poll’s legitimacy.
“All independent polling continues to show Benson hovering near 30%. The only outlier is a new internal poll she paid for herself. Those results have no credibility as we’re sure the next rounds of independent polling will demonstrate. If they actually believed these numbers, MDP and Benson wouldn’t be spending every day attacking us.”
A poll released Monday by the Detroit Regional Chamber, which is backing Duggan’s campaign, has Benson at 30.9%, Duggan at 30.3% and James at 29.5%.
Chamber president and chief executive officer Sandy K. Baruah said the polling is a positive sign for Duggan, but acknowledged that “Frankly, it’s still early.”
While Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel has been consistently vocalizing his opposition to Duggan’s campaign in interviews, Benson hasn’t spent time during her campaign personally attacking Duggan, albeit for her campaign social media account.
Duggan in recent months has been praised and criticized by Democrats and Republicans, but there’s a sense among most on the left that he’s not as forceful in his critiques of conservative politicians as he has been of his former party.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently said that while she would be supporting the Democratic nominee for governor, she appreciated the job Duggan did as mayor of Detroit.
Republican House Speaker Matt Hall this week said on social media that “Mike Duggan is right” talking about how Democrats weren’t able to pass certain legislation during their legislative trifecta from 2022-2024.
A poll conducted by Glengariff Group for The Detroit News and WDIV-TV last month showed Duggan at 26%, trailing James at 36% and Benson at 32%. The result was within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, and 8% of participants said they were undecided, the News reported.
A poll released last fall by Schoen Cooperman Research showed Duggan at 26% of voters, Benson at 30% and James taking 29%.
All three candidates live in metro Detroit.
