Of Course, the Media Is Freaking Out Over Trump's Military Parade, But They're...
The Pulitzer Prize Was Just Awarded to a Publication That Pushed a Fake...
How Barstool's Dave Portnoy Handled This Ambush by a Local News Outlet
All This WaPo Reporter Did Was Show She Doesn't Know the Difference Between...
This Headline Sort of Guts The Washington Post's Pulitzer Win for Covering the...
If There's Anyone That Deserves a Military Parade, It's Donald J. Trump
Can We Pay Liberals to Leave Too?
Young Trumpian Conservatives Are Like the Young Reagan Conservatives of Yesterday
Is the Administration Following Through on Foreign Film Tariffs? The White House Has...
Price Controls for Medicine Have a Devastating Cost
'Trump Knows…' Eclipses the Iconic Bo Jackson Commercial 'Bo Knows…'
Can the West Win Wars Again?
Securing Digital Dignity: A New Line of Defense for Americans
Ignore the Elites — President Trump’s Housing Plan Is Working
From the Gridiron to the Rose Garden — America’s Comeback Starts Here
OPINION

Townhall-Gravis Poll Puts Kelly Ahead in June 2 MS-1 Special Election

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

The Republican combat veteran of Iraq and district attorney running in the June 2 special election for Mississippi-1 leads Democrat Walter Hunter Zinn Jr., 54 percent to 37 percent, according to a May 28 Townhall/Gravis poll of 509 likely voters.

Advertisement

Trent Kelly, a colonel in the Mississippi National Guard, is the choice for 77 percent of Tea Party voters and 69 percent of voters opposed to abortion rights, said Doug Kaplan, the managing partner of Gravis Insights, the Florida-based polling company that conducted the poll. The poll carries a 4 percent margin.

Among voters, living in households with at least one gun, Kelly leads 65 percent to Zinn's 28 percent. But, in households without at least one gun, Zinn leads 58 percent to 30 percent.

The district includes Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and sits in the Mississippi River Delta. Kelly is the district attorney for Lee, Pontotoc, Alcorn, Monroe, Itawamba, Prentiss and Tishomingo counties.

Zinn is an attorney and political activist, who worked as a senior advisor to two mayors of Jackson and has campaigned for raise taxes for water and road infrastructure.

In his campaign biography, Zinn quotes William Faulkner: “To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.”

The special election was called by Mississippi Gov. D. Phillip Bryant after the Feb. 6 death of congressman P. Alan Nunnelle.

Kelly has received support from the congressman's widow, Tori, and the colonel's campaign manager Morgan Baldwin was a staffer for the congressman.

Brian Perry, a seasoned Mississippi Republican operative and consultant, said the poll results fit into how he has been seeing the race develop.

Advertisement

“It is a Republican district, but there are many old-line Democrats there, who can make it competitive, but Mr. Zinn has not been to make it competitive,” he said.

Perry said he would not place Kelly in a particular faction in the Mississippi Republican Party, which was wrought with a bitter Senate primary in 2104 between Sen. W. Thad Cochran and state Sen. Christopher B. McDaniel.

“I do not see him as an establishment or Tea Party candidate, he just ran on his record,” Perry said.

“Kelly is a conservative Republican, who put together a good campaign,” he said. “Kelly's district, where he is district attorney, covers about a third of the congressional district and he was very effective building a grassroots campaign from is his support from the National Guard across the state.”

[The poll has a margin of error of ± 4%, was conducted using IVR technology on May 28th, and the results were weighted by anticipated voting demographics. A complete accounting of the results according to party, race, gender, age group, education category, and other demographic variables is available upon request.]

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement