Troy Jackson Surges in New Poll and is Even with Nirav Shah

A new poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center finds former Senate President Troy Jackson surging in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and is now in a dead heat with former Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah. The survey of 1,397 Maine residents between May 21 and May 25, found that 28 percent of respondents ranked Troy Jackson as their first choice and 28 percent ranked Nirav Shah as their first choice. The proportion of Mainers ranking Jackson first rose by 12 points, from 16 percent in February, according to the survey.

13 percent of voters ranked Secretary of State Shenna Bellows first, a drop from 19 percent in February. First choice votes for former House Speaker Hannah Pingree climbed to 12 percent from 10 percent while businessman Angus King III is at 7 percent in the latest poll. When asked for their second choice, likely Democratic primary voters were most likely to name Bellows (29%), followed by Pingree (23%), Shah (20%), Jackson (14%), and King (6%). A majority of King supporters say that Shah (51%) is their second choice, a plurality of Pingree supporters named Bellows (39%) as their second choice, and a plurality of Bellows supporters name Pingree (37%) as their second choice.

Jackson supporters most often said they supported his policies, Shah supporters most often mentioned his qualifications or confidence, Bellows and Pingree supporters most often mentioned their past experience and King supporters most often said they were familiar with him.

The UNH poll builds on a previous poll by Impact Research showing that the Troymentum is real! Impact's poll released last week found Jackson had risen by six points since March. It found Jackson was in second place with 24 percent and Shah was ahead with 32 percent. What we’ve learned from polling and from knocking doors for Jackson is that the more people get to know him, the more they like him!

That’s why this next week is critical in getting as many people out to canvass for Troy as possible. Please sign up to canvass for Troy with us at: https://maineaflcio.org/troy