LEWISTON, Maine — The Maine Republican Party this week touted details from a door-to-door survey to suggest that support for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential frontrunner, is weak among swing voters in the Pine Tree State.
Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, said Wednesday that the survey included more than 1,000 face-to-face interviews with voters who were identified as being cross-over voters. Savage said the mix included Democrats, Republicans and unenrolled voters, and the results suggest Clinton is struggling to win them over.
Republicans announced the survey results in a fundraising email message to party members from Rick Bennett, Maine GOP chairman.
The message includes a copy of a memo from Savage to Bennett highlighting the survey results and suggests Clinton is “under water in Maine.”
“Among ‘Independent’ swing voters, there are almost 2.5 voters opposed to Clinton for every one voter in support,” the message reads. “Among Republican swing voters, there are about 12 voters opposed to Clinton for every one voter in support. Among Democrat swing voters, Clinton is barely at 1:1, with almost as many Democrat swing voters opposing her as supporting her.”
Savage said Wednesday that the survey also suggests Maine voters of all stripes are largely opposed to “dynasty candidates,” meaning candidates with family members who have previously held the White House, namely Republican Jeb Bush and Clinton.
Jeremy Kennedy, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, expressed skepticism about the Republicans’ findings, given that the GOP did not release any data related to the survey.
“My gut reaction to it is it is pretty disingenuous to send out an email like that under the guise that we have scientific polling saying this says something about the state of our election here, without the actual data to back it up,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy claimed that Democratic presidential candidates had taken a more positive tone during the early weeks of campaigning. He said Republicans “are scrambling to find whatever divisive issue they can to build a coalition around them.”
Savage disagreed, saying Republican candidates were largely keeping their messages positive, “aside from a few little jabs they are throwing at each other.”
Campaigning for each party’s nomination in the 2016 presidential election has taken place largely outside Maine, although Republican hopefuls Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina scheduled visits to the state this week.
The first opportunities party faithful will have to support presidential candidates in a way that matters will occur early next year, during the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Maine’s political parties will hold caucuses early next year to give members a chance to show support for their preferred candidates and to begin the process of selecting delegates to national conventions, where the formal nomination process will take place.