A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Delaware voters shows longtime GOP congressman Mike Castle leading New Castle County Executive Chris Coons 56% to 27%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and 13% are undecided.
Rasmussen’s last poll of the race was in October, when Castle first announced. At that time Castle led Biden 47%-42%. It will be a tough race for Coons if he decides to run, but I think there is real opportunity for him:
While 86% of Republicans support Castle, just 49% of Delaware Democrats back Coons. Thirty-one percent (31%) of Democrats favor the moderate GOP candidate. Sixty-one percent (61%) of the state’s unaffiliated voters choose Castle at this point.
Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Delaware voters have a very favorable opinion of Castle, while just seven percent (7%) view him very unfavorably. Only nine percent (9%) have no opinion of the Republican hopeful who has served as governor and lieutenant governor and been the state’s only congressman since 1993.
Coons is viewed very favorably by 10% and very unfavorably by nine percent (9%). But 23% don’t know enough about Coons to venture even a soft favorable or unfavorable opinion of him.
Coons will need to boost his name recognition. Hopefully jumping in the Senate race will give him a boost. He’ll also need to win back these Democrats who like Castle. I think that if he is aggressive enough in tying Castle to the national GOP, he’ll be able to win.