Not only is the U.S. Senate race in Virginia going to be a barnburner in 2012, President Obama will undoubtedly have a tough fight on his hands if he hopes to carry the Old Dominion as he did in 2008.
Obama took 43 percent in a Quinnipiac poll released Thursday, versus 41 percent from an unnamed Republican challenger.
Breaking down the numbers further, other questions were a dead split: Obama’s approval and disapproval ratings are both 48 percent, and voters are split on whether the president deserves re-election, with 47 percent for and against it.
Obama is personally more popular than his policies, putting him in the same position as Gov. Bob McDonnell. Some 57 percent of Virginia voters like McDonnell personally, but 48 percent support his policies. Three out of four Virginia voters say they like the president personally, but that approval rating dropped to 47 percent when asked if they liked most of the president’s policies.
“President Barack Obama’s great strength looking toward re-election in Virginia, as in many states, is that voters like him personally by an overwhelming margin,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “The Republicans must make this election about his policies if they are to prevail in 2012.”
The poll also showed that 55 percent of Virginians oppose U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and 60 percent oppose U.S. participation in the NATO-led mission in Libya. And 49 percent say that Congress should repeal the new health care law – Obama’s central domestic achievement – versus 42 percent who think it should stand
The state’s two Democratic U.S. Senators remain popular, according to the poll. Sen. Mark Warner had a job approval rating of 57 percent, versus 29 percent who disapproved. Retiring Sen. Jim Webb, meanwhile, had a 50 percent approval rating, while 31 percent disapproved.
From June 21 – 27, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,434 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points.
