Last Updated on May 30, 2022
A Slingshot Strategy poll of voters in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District shows that grassroots, America First candidate Jarome Bell has the edge over McCarthy-backed Jen Kiggans in the district’s race for the GOP nomination. The winner will take on Democrat incumbent and close Pelosi ally Elaine Luria in this November’s mid-terms.
The polling data, which was released this month by Slingshot Strategies, shows America First candidate Jarome Bell, who recently took the stage at Mar-A-Lago with President Trump, in a dead heat with establishment-backed Jen Kiggans for the 2nd District’s GOP nomination to Congress. When the numbers are expounded on, Bell looks to have the edge over Kiggans in the primary contest, which is shaping up to be yet another battle between the grassroots, America First conservatives who put President Trump in the White House, and the GOP establishment who tried to throw him out.
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According to the survey of 600 registered voters, deep frustration with the direction America is heading persists, signaling a great potential for another electoral rebuke of the political establishment- something that doesn’t bode well for candidates like Jen Kiggans, an establishment-aligned State Senator endorsed by Kevin McCarthy and who has been dogged by her left-wing, pro-trans voting record after winning office as a conservative.
Despite Kiggans’ status as a sitting State Senator, she appears to not have the benefit of widespread name recognition that elected officials are typically assumed to have and is known by just 3% more voters than Bell. When those voters are asked for their opinions on the candidates, Kiggans loses out, with 16% of those who know her reporting an unfavorable opinion, compared to 14% reporting the same feelings about Jarome Bell.
Furthermore, when either candidate is placed in a hypothetical match-up with incumbent Democrat Elaine Luria, who is polling deep underwater at less than 40%, Luria garners more support against Kiggans than she does against Bell, poking massive holes in the Kiggans campaign’s top selling point: that it will take a female Republican to defeat a female Democrat. Against Jen Kiggans, Elaine Luria wins the hypothetical support of 39% of voters compared to 38% in a contest versus Jarome Bell.
Although the polling data was conducted by a left-leaning firm, it could spell trouble for Democrat incumbent Elaine Luria. In addition to polling deep underwater against her potential election foes, her favorable rating lies at just 36% of those surveyed. That number resembles those of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who favor Biden at a rate of 42% and Harris at a rate of just 37%. On the other hand, Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin garnered a favorability rating of 50% in the poll, despite its oversampling of Democrats. That, combined with Luria and the Democrats’ tanking approval ratings, could indicate a 2nd District major victory ahead for the GOP.
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