Republican John James showed a nine-point lead over Democrat Carl Marlinga in an independent general election poll for Michigan’s Tenth Congressional District.

The independent poll commissioned by MIRS News showed that James had a nine-point lead over his Democrat opponent, 47 percent to 38 percent. The independent poll showing James significantly leading Marlinga is a bad sign for Democrats.

The polling memo indicated that James, while outside the margin of error, led him with a significant lead in Clinton Township by 33 points, Shelby Township by 28 points, and Saint Clair Shores/Eastpointe by 19 points, in addition to holding a smaller two-point lead in Rochester/Rochester Hills.

Marlinga only led in Sterling Heights — by 28 points — and the two were tied in Warren.

The poll also showed that 31 percent of the respondents said the economy is their top issue, while 24 percent said abortion, 16 percent said inflation, and 29 percent said “other.”

The independent poll was conducted by Mitchell Research and Communications and was commissioned by MIRS News between August 16 and 21. The respondents were 429 likely voters in Michigan’s Tenth Congressional District with a margin of error of 4.73 percent.

Of the respondents who participated in the survey, the memo indicated that 38 percent of them were Democrats or leaned Democrat, while 36 percent were Republicans or leaned Republican. The remaining 26 percent were independents.

The memo also acknowledged that the recent internal poll from Marlinga’s campaign was conducted by Target Insyght but showed him up over James by two percent.

But Marlinga’s internal poll also had a five percent margin of error and oversampled Democrats by five percent. That poll included 43 percent of the respondents as Democrats, 39 percent as Republicans, and a remainder of 18 percent.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Mike Berg said that “John James is one of the best recruits in the country. Crooked child predator defender Carl Marlinga is one of the worst.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.