Perry's leading with just about everyone - including the college-educated

Ryan Streeter
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Yesterday's Gallup poll included several interesting insights into the Rick Perry juggernaut:

• He leads Perry 33-16 among conservatives, which isn't terribly surprising, but trails him only by 4 points, 21-17, among liberal/moderates - which is more suprising.
• He leads Bachmann among women 28-10.
• He leads Bachmann among weekly churchgoers by a big margin, 34-9, and yet he also leads among the non-religious over Romney, 24-18.
• He leads among every age group except for 18-29 year olds, which Ron Paul dominates.

But I missed what Ron Brownstein drew attention to this morning, namely:

Among Republican voters with at least a four-year college degree, Perry has rocketed to the top with 33.4%, dwarfing Romney's 21 percent, Paul's 10 percent, and Bachmann's 9 percent.

You wouldn't guess most of these numbers given the media obsession with Perry (climate change skeptic, religious nut, etc.), but the reality is that he's got a broad appeal among different groups that no candidate to date has matched.

We'll see how that continues after the September 7 debate, the first time America will see him toe to toe with the others. But his appeal will likely continue at least until them at these high levels. Why? Because so far, every attempt to attack him or portray him in an unflattering way has only strengthened his appeal.

Comments

[Libertarian]

Slight error you've put that he leads Perry among conservatives etc when you in fact mean that he leads Romney.

I'm torn on Perry, the man has a decent economic record (not a great one, spending still went up every year or his administration) but I don't like him personally. He doesn't strike me as a man I can trust or a man I could like. I would of course vote for him over Obama any day of the week but he wouldn't be my choice in the Primary.

Currently I'm torn between Paul, Bachmann and Cain. I like the anti-establishment crowd as I believe the establishment have dominated Washington for far too long!