Democrat Hillary Clinton holds a 10-point lead over Republican Donald Trump among Maine voters, according to the latest Breitbart/Gravis poll conducted between Aug. 4 and Aug. 8.
“Clinton has a solid lead, but it is still not as wide as Obama’s margin over Romney in 2012,” said Doug Kaplan, the managing partner of Gravis Marketing, the Florida-based firm that executed the poll for Breitbart News. The poll was conducted with 2,046 registered voters in the Pine Tree State, using automated telephone calls with online responses and carries a 2.2 percent margin of error.
President Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney by a 15-point margin in 2012 to secure Maine’s four electoral votes.
Kaplan says 50 percent of voters polled approved of Obama’s performance as president and 42 percent disapproved.
In the head-to-head, 17 percent of respondents said they would support another candidate, he said. But, when Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein were added to the options, Clinton dropped to 43 percent, Trump dropped to 33 percent and Johnson was the choice of 10 percent and Stein was at 5 percent.
Among Maine Democrats, Clinton is the choice of 74 percent to Trump‘s 15 percent. Among Republicans, 68 percent support Trump compared to 19 percent of Republicans supporting Clinton.
The former first lady leads among Independents 43 percent to Trump’s 31 percent.
Maine has not gone for a Republican in the general election since it went for George H.W. Bush over Michael S. Dukakis in 1988, he said. “But, there is still an opportunity for Trump given the changes in the state’s political climate, where the Tea Party and the gun rights movement has made in roads.” In 2015, Maine became a “constitutional carry” state, where adults are free to carry concealed firearms without a permitting process.
Maine’s Republican Gov. Paul R. LePage endorsed Trump during the campaign for the GOP nomination, but the state went instead to Sen. Ted Cruz (TX). Trump has made two trips to Maine during the campaign and he looks to be making a serious play for the state. His last rally was Aug. 4 in Portland.
Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, a Republican from Lisbon Falls, told the Portland Press Herald that Maine is no longer the deep blue state it was in previous cycles.
Mason said evidence of the state’s shift rightward can be seen in the re-election of Gov. Paul LePage in 2014, and control of the state Senate going back and forth between Republicans and Democrats in recent years, instead of being reliably Democratic-controlled.