Generic Republican Candidate 47%, Obama 41%

President Obama now earns his lowest level of support yet against a generic Republican candidate in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup. 

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a generic Republican earns support from 47% of Likely Voters, while the president picks up 41% of the vote.  Four percent (4%) favor some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last week, the generic Republican received 48% of the vote, the highest level of support yet, while the incumbent earned 43%.   The GOP candidate has now out polled the president in eight of 11 surveys conducted weekly since early May.  Prior to this survey, the Republican has earned 43% to 48% of the vote, while support for the president has ranged from 42% to 45%. Rasmussen Reports will provide new data on this generic matchup each week until the field of prospective Republican nominees narrows to a few serious contenders. 

In the Generic Congressional Ballot, Republicans hold a six-point lead over Democrats for the week ending Sunday, July 17.  The GOP has led on the ballot every week since June 2009.

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The survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted on July 11-17, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.