We now have two Michigan polls, surveying Republican voters during the same period of time, that show very different results in the presidential race as the March 8 primary approaches.
The Mitchell/FOX2 Detroit poll that was conducted on Monday found Donald Trump with a commanding lead across the state at 41 percent.
The Detroit News/WDIV poll that was conducted Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and shows Trump with a lead at just 25 percent.
A 16-point difference. What’s going on here?
FOX2 did not report how many voters were surveyed or what was the margin of error for their poll, which was conducted by pollster Steve Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Research & Communications. The Detroit News reported that their telephone survey, conducted by the Glengariff Group sampled 600 voters, putting the margin of error at plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Both polls have Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich bunched up in the 11 to 15 percent range behind Trump.
So, the 16-point gap is, as The Donald would say, “yuuuuge.”
Voters should be forgiven if they ask incredulously how one set of poll results reported on Thursday had Trump with a lead at 41 percent and the next day it is reported that the billionaire tycoon’s lead is 25 percent.
Clearly, somebody is way off the mark.
Consider this: The News/WDIV survey says that a key Trump stronghold is Macomb County, the state’s third-largest county. The GOP frontrunner leads in Macomb with 39.6 percent, compared to support in Wayne and Oakland counties that is in the mid-20s.
What that means is the News/WDIV poll has one of Trump’s most significant advantages at a lower level (39.6 percent) than what Mitchell/FOX found (41 percent) all across the state.
