Last updated on July 1st, 2012 at 07:17 am
A new Survey USA poll of that state of Massachusetts released today shows that despite losing the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama has sprinted out to a 13 point lead over John McCain, 53%-40%. As is becoming the norm with these state polls, Obama leads with women and McCain with men.
McCain has a six point lead with men in the state, 50%-44%, while Obama has a 30 point lead with women, 61%-31%. Obama leads McCain with both voters under and over 50. With voters under 50, Obama leads 53%-41%, and with voters over 50 he leads 53%-39%. This is a bit of role reversal as Obama’s strength is usually perceived to be with younger voters. Obama has a 20 point lead with voters age 18-34, and he also has a 15 point lead with voters over 65. Obama has much smaller leads of 6 and 8 points with voters age 35-49 and 50-64.
Obama leads among Independents in the state 47%-43%, and despite the fact that McCain is pro-life, he picks up 32% of the anti-abortion vote in the state. A battle is shaping up for the support of those voters who attend religious services regularly. Currently, McCain holds a slim 46%-45% lead over Obama with these voters.
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Massachusetts is one of the solid blue states. It has not gone Republican since it supported Ronald Reagan’s reelection in 1984. Bill Clinton carried the state in 1992 by 18. Al Gore won by 27 in 2000, and John Kerry won by 25 in 2004. It might seem a little surprising that Obama is only leading McCain by 13 right now, but I suspect that as the campaign goes on, Obama’s lead will grow closer to the numbers that Gore and Kerry each carried the state by.
