Senate

Poll: Warren could face rocky reelection path

by Jordain Carney - 01/23/17 10:54 AM ET

Massachusetts voters are split on whether or not Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) should be reelected, according to a new poll.

Forty-six percent of all voters told WBUR they should “give someone else a chance,” compared to 44 percent who said Warren should be reelected.

Steve Koczela — president of The MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the survey — said the numbers shouldn’t be “reassuring” for Warren, who is up for reelection in 2018.

“No one’s going to look at a 44 percent reelect number and think that that’s a good number,” he told WBUR.

{mosads}Roughly a third of Democrats told WBUR that someone else should be given a shot at Warren’s seat. Ninety two percent of Republicans also want someone else besides Warren, a liberal favorite in the Senate, as well as 46 percent of independent voters.

Warren—who joined the Senate in 2013 and has quickly risen through Democratic Party ranks—said earlier this month that she would run for reelection in 2018.

“Representing Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and fighting for working families here and all across this country is the best job,” she said at the time. “But I also know this: We fought our hearts out to win in 2012, and I expect we’ll have an even bigger, more expensive fight in 2018.”

No one has officially jumped into the race against her, though former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has indicated he plans to make a bid for the seat.

Fifty-one percent of voters say their view Warren favorably, according to the same poll, compared to 31 percent who view her unfavorably.

The WBUR survey polled 508 registered Massachusetts voters. The poll took place Jan. 15-17 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.

Tags Elizabeth Warren