A new poll shows Republican Senate candidate Tom Leek with a "significant lead" in the Senate District 7 GOP Primary.
A survey from McLaughlin & Associates shows about 39% of likely Republican Primary voters in the district favor Leek, a Representative running for the open Senate seat. That compares to 20% who prefer former St. Johns Sheriff David Shoar.
Leek "clearly has the momentum to win the primary election," writes pollster Jim McLaughlin.
The firm finds 9% of voters want Gerry James, a former professional wrestler who challenged outgoing Sen. Travis Hutson for the same seat in 2022.
That leaves a full 31% of voters in the race undecided. The Republican nomination will be decided in an Aug. 20 Primary.
The Republican polling firm boasts connections to Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Pollsters surveyed 300 likely Primary voters between June 27 and 30. While the poll reports a sizable 5.7-percentage-point margin of error, Leek's 19-point lead still falls well outside of that.
The poll also found that Leek has stronger favorability ratings than Shoar. The state lawmaker has a 42% positive rating, while Shoar has a 34% rating. Pollsters say Leek's favorability actually exceeds Hutson's by 14 percentage points.
Pollsters also found 84% of voters have recently read or heard about Leek. Among this more in-tune set of voters, Leek has a stronger lead over Shoar of 46% to 22%.
Notably, the memo notes this is the second public poll showing Leek with a lead. It frequently references a Cygnal poll in mid-June.
"In spite of the negative attacks from the Shoar campaign and the liberal special interests supporting Shore (sic), Tom Leek has not only increased his ballot share, but Leek has grown his favorable rating from 36% in mid-June in the Cygnal poll, to 42% by the end of June for a net increase of 6-points," McLaughlin writes.
He concludes that negative ads from a trial lawyer-linked political committee have likely backfired and increased Leek's profile.
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