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POLITICS

2012 Presidential Election: Romney vs. Obama

Romney 43%, Obama 40%

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney now holds a sliver of a lead over President Obama in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup.

Romney earns 43% support to the president’s 40% in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters. Nine percent (9%) prefer some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. (To see question wording, click here.) 

Given the margin of error, the race between the two men is essentially tied. This survey was taken prior to last night’s televised debate between the top Republican hopefuls.

Less than three weeks ago, Romney trailed Obama 43% to 39%. At that time, Texas Governor Rick Perry was the only Republican contender leading the president, with a 44% to 41% advantage.

Obama has the support of 79% of Democrats, while 73% of Republicans back Romney. Among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties, the Republican leads by 13 points – 42% to 29%. Eighty-two percent (82%) of Tea Party members favor Romney. Non-members prefer the president 50% to 34%.

A generic Republican candidate earned the highest level of support to date against the president in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup for the week ending Sunday, September 4. The generic Republican picked up 49% support, while Obama earned 41%. Rasmussen Reports will release the latest numbers for this matchup at 3 pm Eastern today.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The match-up surveys of 1,000 Likely Voters were conducted September 10-11 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error for the surveys is +/- 3% with a 95% level of confidence.  Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

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