By TODD STACY, Alabama Daily News
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A new internal poll from the Jeff Sessions campaign shows the former attorney general in a dead heat with former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville.
The survey shows that if the election were held today, the two candidates would be tied at 45% each with 10% of voters undecided.
Ballot Test
“Thinking about this year’s upcoming Republican Primary runoff election taking place on March 31st, if the runoff election for U.S. Senate were held today and the candidates were (ROTATE NAMES) Jeff Sessions and Tommy Tuberville, for whom would you vote?”
| Candidate | Voter choice |
|---|---|
| Jeff Sessions | 45% |
| Tommy Tuberville | 45% |
| Undecided | 10% |
Favorability
| Voter Response | Sessions | Tuberville |
|---|---|---|
| Very Favorable | 31% | 33% |
| Somewhat Favorable | 28% | 26% |
| Somewhat Unfavorable | 14% | 10% |
| Very Unfavorable | 17% | 15% |
| No Opinion | 10% | 15% |
| Never Heard of | 0% | 2% |
The results, released by the Sessions campaign on Tuesday, counters a Cygnal poll published by Alabama Daily News Tuesday morning showing Tuberville with a double-digit lead over Sessions. That poll was conducted using Cygnal’s unique “probabilistic mixed-mode” method of contacting voters thought text and interactive voice response. Cygnal says the new method is reflective of how voters now prefer to communicate, as opposed to live phone calls.
Wes Anderson, who conducted the poll for OnMessage on behalf of the Sessions campaign, dismissed the such survey tactics.
“Unlike some of the nonsense robo call polls and online polls being thrown out there, this is a real look at the Republican voters in Alabama right now,” Anderson said.
“It doesn’t get any tighter than this,” said pollster Wes Anderson. “This race is completely up for grabs, with 10% of Republican voters currently undecided.
The OnMessage survey was conducted via live calls to 8000 likely primary voters and carries a margin for error of +/-3.46%. According to the Sessions campaign, the sample was stratified to reflect recent voter trends and is proportional geographically to the March 3rd primary election results.
See the full polling memo from the Sessions campaign HERE.