New Statewide Poll “Good News For Republicans,” Says MSU-Billings Professor

A new poll of 410 Montanans conducted by faculty and students at MSU-Billings over the past week (October 6-11), may bring courage to state republicans in the weeks before the midterm elections.

Despite being a "purple" state, Montana has had relatively few polls conducted this year, making the MSU-Billings poll a touchstone of what to expect on November 4.

"We found a lot of good news for Republicans," said MSU Billings Psychology Professor Matt McMullen. "The U.S. Senate seat that Steve Daines is seeking was 47% for Daines and 31% for the Democrat Amanda Curtis. We had 40% for the Republican Ryan Zinke and 33% for the Democrat John Lewis."

There were significantly more undecided votes in the U.S. House race, where 35% of respondents still had not made up their minds on how to vote.

Another interesting finding in the poll involves a race for Montana Supreme Court Justice. The match up between Lawrence VanDyke (12.9%) and Mike Wheat (24.9%) is still largely undecided (62.2%). The interesting point is that it is also much more partisan despite being a non-partisan race.

"Democrats supported Wheat over VanDyke 44% to 6%, but Republicans supported VanDyke over Wheat 19% to 10%," McMullen said.

Matthew McMullen Interview:

The poll asks many other questions ranging from the economy to the Keystone XL Pipeline andAffordable Care Act, some of these results can be seen below.