Nevadans just sent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid back for another term, and a new PPP poll indicates they’re leaning toward reelecting another Democrat, President Barack Obama, as well. Obama led all hypothetical challengers in the poll by a comfortable margin — except Mitt Romney, who Obama leads by just one point, 47%-46%.
Romney was the only challenger who polled within single digits of the president, and the only one who kept Obama’s support below the symbolic 50% threshold. Huckabee came next closest, lagging 51% to 41%, while Gingrich trailed 51% to 40%. Palin fared worst against Obama, as she has consistently done in recent PPP surveys, trailing the President 52% to 39%.
Strong Republican support for Romney made his contest with Obama a toss up. Sixty-six percent of conservatives said they had a favorable opinion of Romney, second only to the 71% who said they had a favorable opinion of Palin.
That’s a reversal of fortune for the former Massachusetts Governor, who has been hampered by low support from his GOP base in previous PPP polls. Of the other ten GOP primaries PPP has polled since the midterm elections, conservatives have liked Romney the least in all of them except Michigan, where Romney has a home state advantage. (Romney was born in Michigan and his father was once the state’s Governor.)
Obama rolled in Nevada two years ago, trouncing John McCain by a 12.4-point margin. Due to reapportionment brought on by the 2010 census, the swing state will have six electoral votes in the next presidential election, one more than the state had in 2008.
The PPP poll was conducted January 3-5 among 932 Nevada voters. It has a margin of error of 3.2%
