A new poll of likely Democrat primary voters shows Rep. Napoleon Bracy Jr. with the most support, though 47% of respondents are undecided ahead of the March 5 contest.
The poll for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund and New Southern Majority is the first public survey of the race where 13 Democrats qualified in November. Another eight are on the Republican ballot.
Impact Research conducted the poll of 450 likely voters Dec. 16-20.
Asked who they would vote for if the election were today, 15% said Bracy, followed by Shomari Figures, 9%; Rep. Anthony Daniels, 8%; Sen. Merika Coleman, 6%; Darryl Sinkfield, 5%; Rep. Jeremy Gray, 4%; and Rep. Juandalynn Givan, 2%.
Sinkfield has dropped out of the race.
Residents of the newly drawn district were also asked about issues important to them. Among their priorities were: Making health care more affordable, making housing more affordable, reducing inflation and rising costs, raising the minimum wage, protecting abortion rights and protecting voting rights.
Nineteen percent of respondents said the most important thing Congress could do to improve the economy is raise wages, including minimum wage.
“This research demonstrates that voters across Alabama’s new congressional district want true, progressive representation,” Brandon Jones, director of political campaigns for the SPLC Action Fund, said in a written statement Wednesday. “Candidates’ positions on progressive policy issues will be a major determining factor as they clearly want to step into the political power this district finally provides them.”
As redrawn by the federal court, the district now has a Black voting age population of 48.3%, which leads most political experts to predict the district to lean Democratic in November.
The poll also asked about the importance of residency in the district, which could become a primary contest issue. Federal law doesn’t require a congressman or woman to live in the district they represent and several candidates currently don’t or didn’t until recently.
Eighty percent of respondents said it was a serious problem if a candidate didn’t live within the district. Fifty-nine percent said it was a serious problem if a candidate had recently moved back to the district after living out of state for several years. Fifty-five percent said it was a serious problem if a candidate was born and raised in the Black Belt but now lives outside the district.