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POLITICS

Three Way Race: Democrat 40% Republican 21% Tea Party 18%

A congressional race with an official Tea Party candidate in the running appears to be good news for Democrats.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that in a three-way congressional contest with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat picks up 40% of the vote. The Republican earns 21% support, while nearly as many (18%) favor the Tea Party candidate. Twenty-one percent (21%), however, remain undecided.

Not surprisingly, Republicans and unaffiliated voters are more likely to be undecided than Democrats. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

This is a slightly improved picture for Democrats from early February of last year. In a three-way matchup at that time, the Democrat earned 36% to the Republican’s 25%, while the Tea Party candidate won 17% of the vote.

In a two-way race, Republicans continue to hold a modest advantage over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

In the new survey, the Tea Party candidate draws 28% support from GOP voters, while 85% of Democrats back their party’s candidate. Just 45% of Republicans support the Republican candidate in the three-way matchup. Among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties, 15% like the Republican, 29% the Democrat and 25% the Tea Party candidate.

Sixteen percent (16%) of all voters now consider themselves members of the Tea Party movement, down from 21% at the end of last year. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say they are not members, while another 15% are not sure.

Just 9% of voters rate the performance of Congress as good or excellent.

(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 survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 9, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points 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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