New NH poll shows Sununu with a narrow edge over Hassan in hypothetical 2022 US Senate

A new Granite State poll shows a tight hypothetical 2022 U.S. Senate matchup between Republican Gov. Chris Sununu and Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan – the results coming just a few days after the governor said his decision on whether to challenge the incumbent is imminent.The poll of 1,323 registered New Hampshire voters, conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center from Oct. 20-22, found Sununu leading Hassan, 46 percent to 41 percent, with 9 percent choosing “someone else” and 4 percent undecided. The result is tighter than the previous Saint Anselm poll, released in late August, which had Sununu leading Hassan, 49 percent to 40 percent, with 6 percent choosing “someone else” and 4 percent undecided. But it shows a wider difference between the two than a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll last week, which found Sununu leading Hassan, 45 percent to 42 percent – a virtual tie.View the new Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll results here.The new Saint Anselm poll also reveals that widespread voter pessimism about the direction of the nation is weighing down the job approval ratings of all incumbents, regardless of political party but particularly the four Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation.The job ratings of Hassan, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas are “under water,” meaning that more people view disapprove than approve of the job they are doing in Washington.Hassan received approval for her job performance from 44 percent of those polled, while 50 percent disapproved.Kuster’s approval/disapproval rating was 40 percent/46 percent, while Pappas’ approval/disapproval rating was 42 percent/46 percent.Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the only member of the congressional delegation not seeking reelection next year, received positive job performance marks from 46 percent of those polled, while 48 percent disapproved. Sununu, despite getting high marks from more Granite Staters than the members of the federal delegation, has seen his job approval slide from 64 percent approval and 34 percent disapproval in August to 56 percent approval and 42 percent disapproval currently.Several recent polls have shown President Joe Biden’s job approval rating sharply declining, but the Saint Anselm poll shows little change since August. Currently, 44 percent approve and 56 percent disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president. In August, 44 percent approved and 55 percent disapproved.Poll director Neil Levesque said a key finding was that 68 percent of Granite Staters now believe the nation is on the wrong track — a statistic he said prompted the drag on voters’ views of the state’s top elected officials. Only 21 percent said the nation is heading in the right direction.While 95 percent of Republicans and 74 percent of undeclared voters said the nation is on the wrong track, Democrats were split with 44 percent saying the U.S. is on the right track, 35 percent saying it is on the wrong track and 20 percent unsure.The latest Sununu-Hassan matchup comes as the governor has continued to fan speculation that he is heading toward a Senate run. Just last Friday, he told WMUR’s premier “News9+ Politics” digital program that he will make his decision “in the next few weeks.” “Right now, we’re seeing that New Hampshire voters are much more polarized and pessimistic about the future than ever before,” said Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.While Sununu’s overall job approval rating has declined, the governor continues to draw widespread support for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite being the target of frequent attacks on that issue by Democrats.The poll found that 71 percent of voters approve of job he is doing addressing the pandemic, while only 27 percent disapprove. While Democrats disapprove of Sununu’s overall job performance by a margin of 73 percent to 25 percent, they approve of his handling of COVID-19 issues by a margin of 56 percent to 41 percent.The new poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. The survey center said participants were cell phone users “randomly drawn from a sample of registered voters reflecting the demographic and partisan characteristics of the voting population.”The center said the sample was 34 percent registered Democrats, 34 percent registered Republicans and 32 percent registered undeclared voters with 43 percent identifying themselves as conservative, 40 percent calling themselves liberal and 17 percent calling themselves moderate.Sununu and Hassan each have the support of more than 80 percent of the voters in his or her own party, but undeclared voters favor Sununu, 48 percent to 34 percent, and self-described “swing” voters, regardless of how they are registered, favor Sununu 49 percent to 20 percent.U.S. House breakdownWhile the poll did not include hypothetical head-to-head matchups of New Hampshire’s two 2022 U.S. House races, it did include a generic question – and, statewide, 46 percent said they would vote for the Republican candidate while 43 percent said they would vote for the Democratic candidate.In the all-important congressional district breakdown:– In the 1st Congressional District, represented by Pappas, 48 percent of registered voters said they would vote for the Republican candidate and 41 percent said they would vote for Democratic candidate, with 4 percent choosing “someone else” and 7 percent undecided.– In the 2nd Congressional District, represented by Kuster, 44 percent said they would vote for the Republican candidate and 45 percent said they would vote for the Democratic candidate, with 3 percent choosing “someone else” and 9 percent undecided.A related report on the poll covers voters’ opinions of a vaccine mandate, inflation and spending plans pending in Congress. 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