Republican Malloy trails Peter Welch by less than 7 points in U.S. Senate race

By Guy Page

A poll by a national public research group shows Peter Welch leading Gerald Malloy 49.7% – 43.2% in the race for the Vermont U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Patrick Leahy.

The Trafalgar Group poll, released Friday, was conducted Sept. 3 — September, before the first statewide debate conducted last week in which Welch reportedly explained his support for the increasing IRS funding by $80 billion because “there are a lot of Americans who make an awful lot of money who aren’t paying their taxes.”

Gerald Malloy

Welch has been in Congress since being elected in 2006. He handily won the Democratic nomination. Malloy, a Republican, is a retired U.S. Army officer and Perkinsville resident making his first run for office. He ran hard in the primary and easily defeated former U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan and businessman Myers Mermel.

Malloy’s primary victory surprised many — including VT GOP Chair Paul Dame.

“During the primary, many regular political observers – including myself – were surprised to see Malloy out-polling U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan,” Dame wrote in a letter to GOP members. “It is not difficult to believe the same thing may be happening again as President Biden’s divisive rhetoric and series of cascading crisis after crisis have put an unprecedented amount of pressure on Democrats like Peter Welch who have accomplished virtually nothing of significance in the past decade and a half but have instead been a rubber stamp on every bad policy over the past 2 years.”

The poll featured 1072 respondents who were likely general election voters. It claimed a response rate of 1.43%, a margin of error of 2.9%, and a 95% confidence rating. 57% of respondents were Democrats, 30% Republicans, and 13% were listed as other.

Trafalgar claims it was “named the best polling firm of 2016 presidential race, and this year, Real Clear Politics called us “‘he most accurate pollster of the cycle among those firms that polled multiple Senate and governor races.’”

The same poll also showed Vermonters supporting incumbent Gov. Phil Scott over Democratic challenger Brenda Siegel by a 68% — 15% margin.

Guy Page is publisher of the Vermont Daily Chronicle. Reprinted with permission.

Image courtesy of Gerald Malloy

6 thoughts on “Republican Malloy trails Peter Welch by less than 7 points in U.S. Senate race

  1. Let us all remember that Hillary was ahead in all the polls. Just get out and vote or it could be a self fulfilling prophecy.

  2. Wake up voters, we’ve had too many decades of partisan D hacks in the
    DC swamp not doing for Vermonters but rubber stamping for continued
    debt for all taxpayers. The queen sin city is about the only recipient of fed
    money from leaky who thinks they’ll build a statue of him for the drug
    infested park… Welch also voted DOWN a amendment to limit the 87k
    gun welding irs agents to only review income over 400k… he don’t give a
    crap about you only the leftist agenda… Vote for change vote Mallory

  3. Peter Welch looking to upgrade from Pelosi rubber stamp to Schumer rubber stamp. If you are
    enjoying high inflation, high energy prices, the death of personal liberty, censorship and all the other destructive policies including covid mandates, $85 billion in high tech military weapons and gear to our enemies, 2.5 to 4 million illegal aliens crossing our borders, record drugs, guns and terrorists flooding our country, then Peter is your man. The results of the Biden administration are here for all to see. Can
    you see it’s time for change or are you politically blind to reality? Peter Welch does not deserve any
    more time in Washington DC. What has he done?

  4. Here’s Vermont’s chance to save face in DC, and send Welch into retirement,
    we need a leader in DC, not a follower ……..in our state, vote for Malloy !!

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