Poll: Palin, Romney, Huckabee Top List of Potential Republicans for 2012
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 24, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Some familiar names top the list of potential Republican presidential candidates for a 2012 race against incoming pro-abortion president Barack Obama. Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and two candidates who lost the GOP primary to McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, lead the way.
Gallup interviewed Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and asked whether certain potential candidates should run or not.
Some 67 percent of Republicans said Palin should run, helping her top the list. Another 62 percent wanted to see Romney run, and 61 percent favored Huckabee.
The rest of the potential names came in at under 50 percent, in some cases because they are not as well known.
General David Petraeus had 47 percent of Republicans saying he should mount a presidential bid, and the same number also thought pro-life former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would make a good candidate.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is pro-life, received the backing of 34 percent of Republicans but his numbers were low because 30 percent of GOP voters had no opinion and are apparently not familiar with him. The same went for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and South Carolina Sen. Lyndsey Graham, who were both named by less than 25 percent of Republicans as candidates they want to see.
In terms of which Republicans voters least likely want to see, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came in with 61 percent and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani received 47 percent.
Palin, Huckabee and Romney appear to appeal to the conservatives within the Republican Party, who are more likely to be pro-life.
Some 73 percent of conservatives would like to see Palin run as do 65 percent for Romney and 64 percent for Huckabee.
Moderate and liberal Republicans were most favoring of Romney (59 percent), Giuliani (50 percent), and Palin (48 percent).
The Gallup survey only featured 10 potential Republican presidential candidates and didn’t include several potential contenders that have drawn some speculation. Those include pro-life South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and pro-life Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, or Indiana Rep. Mike Pence and Sen. Sam Brownback.
Results for this Gallup Panel study were based on telephone interviews with 799 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents from November 5-16.
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