In the latest poll out regarding the Wyoming GOP primary for senate, incumbent Senator Mike Enzi holds a strong lead over challenger Liz Cheney. After announcing she would run for the Republican nomination in the 2014 Wyoming senate race, many Republicans had opinions of the choice. But in the latest poll out of Wyoming, Mike Enzi leads the former VP’s daughter by over 30 points.
If the race were held today 55 percent said they would support Senator Enzi, whereas only 21 percent support Cheney’s efforts.
Just over three-quarters of the state’s voters view Enzi favorably, compared with just 6 percent who have an unfavorable view. His job approval rating stands at 73 percent. Enzi, who’s represented Wyoming in the Senate since 1997, has virtually universal name ID in the state: zero percent of those surveyed said they hadn’t heard of him.
Cheney is also well known in the state — just 2 percent of voters haven’t heard of her — but more than a third of voters, 38 percent, said they have no opinion on her. Of those who do have an opinion, 45 percent view Cheney favorably and 15 percent view her unfavorably.
Just under half of voters, 48 percent, said Enzi deserves reelection. Twenty-eight percent said someone else deserves a chance at the seat and 24 percent were undecided.
The problem that Cheney now faces, is not whether she has the name recognition, but she must convince Wyoming residents that Enzi no longer has their best interests at heart, and instead she is their best bet. But this is not going to be an easy task, seeing as she has not been a resident of Wyoming for a short time, having lived a very long time just outside Washington, DC.
Cheney also will have trouble with her stance on gay marriage. She supports same-sex marriage, and in Wyoming they definitely do not! They couldn’t get anything passed in the state legislature this year, not even a watered down, domestic partnership bill.
Although Vice President Cheney does have a fairly high favorability rating, this may not help his daughter enough. Simply put, in order to beat an incumbent you need to have a higher favorability than he does, and she does not. Granted it is still early, but Liz Cheney is going to have to make some serious strides before we will see her in that Wyoming senate seat.
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