A new poll released Saturday suggests Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s strong performance in last Wednesday’sdebate generated a boost for him in Wisconsin.
According to thelatest survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, President Barack Obama leads Romney by just two percentage points, 49 percent to 47 percent, in Wisconsin. In a PPP poll from two weeks ago, 52 percent of those surveyed said they planned to vote for Obama compared to 45 percent for Romney.
61 percent of the poll’s respondents said Romney won the first of three presidential debates Wednesday night in Denver while only 25 percent said the president came out on top.
The poll also suggests the debate seemed to improve Romney’s image among the state’s electorate and fire up Republicans about the election. 49 percent of Wisconsin voters now view Romney positively while 48 percent hold negative opinions of the former Massachusetts governor. In the PPP poll from two weeks ago, Romney’s favorability rating stood at 44-51.
Additionally, 72 percent of Republican voters in the state now say they are “very excited” to vote in November compared to 63 percent in the last survey.
There was one silver lining in the poll results for the Democrats, however: Obama still leads among the all-important independent voting bloc by nine percentage points.
The poll was conducted throughout the three days following the debate, October 4-6, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.
It remains to be seen if Romney’s post-debate bump will last, but this poll, along with recent visits to the state byObama and GOP vice presidential nomineePaul Ryan, shows Wisconsin will likely remain a battleground in the final weeks leading up to Election Day.
