If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

ARCHIVE

Obama 43%, Perry 37%

While Rick Perry continues to take a hammering in the media and from his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination, President Obama’s single-digit lead over the Texas governor remains virtually unchanged over the past month.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows Obama capturing 43% of the vote, while Perry’s support stands at 37%. Seven percent (7%) like another candidate in the race, and 12% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last week, the president posted a virtually identical 44% to 38% lead over Perry, and two weeks ago, he led his GOP rival 46% to 39%.  In late August, Perry edged Obama 44% to 41%.  A week before that, the two candidates were similarly matched with Obama slightly ahead 43% to 40%.

Although Perry is the frontrunner in the Republican race in the most recent Rasmussen Reports survey, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is still the GOP hopeful who matches up best against the president, with the two continuing to run neck-and-neck as they have for weeks.  Georgia businessman Herman Cain, like Perry, is now within single digits of Obama, but Texas Congressman Ron Paul has fallen 10 points behind.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is getting the big push from some to enter the race, and he, too, runs nearly even with the president.

A Generic Republican candidate has now led the president by single digits in weekly polling for nearly three months.  Rasmussen Reports updates that number every Tuesday at 3 pm Eastern.

(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 September 30-October 1, 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.

Want to read more?

Become a Rasmussen Reader to read the article

Have an account?

Log In

Become a Reader

Subscribe

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

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.

Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.

To learn more about our methodology, click here.