Embattled Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) would be defeated by former Detroit Police Chief James E. Craig if the election were held today, according to a poll commissioned by the Michigan Republican Party.
Craig retired from the Detroit Police Department on June 1 and is expected to formally announce his bid.
The poll, which was conducted by Competitive Edge Research, shows that Craig, a Republican, would defeat Whitmer 45 to 38 percent. The poll was conducted May 26 through June 4, and has a 4 percent margin of error.
Deadline Detriot argues that since the poll was commissioned by the state Republican Party that it “should be taken with a grain of salt,” however, “it does track with polling data released Monday by the Detroit Regional Chamber.”
That poll by the Glengariff Group showed that Whitmer’s job approval continues to fall — a full 8 percent since February, after a spate of blunders including Whitmer’s plane trip to Florida; her night on the town at an East Lansing pizza parlor, and new and serious questions about Michigan’s official nursing home death count.
More telling, when asked in the Glengariff poll if every voter should have to present a state-issued ID card in order to cast their ballot, 80 percent said they supported the Republican-backed measure while 16 percent opposed it.
The CERC poll was less emphatic however, with 65 percent of voters supporting the ID legislation with 15 percent opposed.
Whitmer was leading Craig by six points in a previous poll commissioned by MIRS News and conducted by Target Insyght back in May.
The same poll shows Detroit businessman John James, who barely lost his bid for the U.S. Senate in 2020, only trails Whitmer in a hypothetical match-up by five points.
