The tidal wave of recent support for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is manifesting itself in two new polls showing the pro-life businessman now running competitively with pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The first poll, conducted by the firm Poll Position, shows Cain beating Obama in a potential head-to-head matchup by a 43.3 percent to 41.3 percent margin. In the results the firm found in its automated voice survey technology poll, Cain takes a whopping 24 percent of the African-American vote — a much higher percentage that actual Republican presidential candidates have received in elections past.
The survey shows 18.2 percent of white voters are undecided while just 4 percent of black voters are undecided in this hypothetical. Also, 12.5 percent of Republicans support Obama in the poll while 18.9 percent of Democrats back Cain.
Poll Position’s telephone survey of 1,135 registered voters nationwide was conducted October 9 and has a margin of error of three percent and the sample includes 33.4 percent Democrats, 32.2 percent Republicans and 34.2 percent independents.
Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll shows Cain has pulled within three points of Obama in its most recent national telephone survey of likely voters. The latest 2012 hypothetical matchup finds the president earning 42% support, while Cain picks up 39% of the vote. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, and 12% are undecided.
“The latest results represent the best showing for Cain who appears to be experiencing a surge of support among Republican voters. Late last month, the former radio host trailed the president 39% to 34%. Obama held a seven-point lead a month earlier and led Cain by 18 points in March,” Rasmussen notes.
“Cain draws support from 70% of Republican voters, while Obama picks up the vote from 79% of Democrats. Voters not affiliated with either party are evenly divided between the candidates. Eighty-five percent (85%) of Tea Party voters support Cain, but 55% of non-members prefer Obama,” Rasmussen continued.
Cain likely would do better against Obama, but the Rasmussen poll shows some Republican voters are concerned about his “9-9-9” tax reform plan, as most of those polled agree that if it becomes law, Congress won’t wait long to raise the tax rates higher. Fifty-six percent (56%) of GOP voters favor Cain’s plan, but 66% of all voters think Congress would raise tax rates within five to 10 years of the plan’s adoption.
The businessman has acknowledged and addressed that concern, saying his plan would require a two-thirds vote in Congress to raise taxes.
Rasmussen polls show Obama leads all of the current GOP hopefuls except former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney with whom he is essentially tied. New numbers on the Romney-Obama match-up will be released tomorrow, Rasmussen indicates.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 6-7, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research.
