Newt GingrichFormer U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich enjoys a home-field advantage in the race for the Georgia Republican presidential primary, but he trails Mitt Romney in head-to-head matchups with President Barack Obama, a new poll shows.
Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman, leads Romney 43 percent to 21 percent among Georgia Republicans, according to the poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Georgia Newspaper Partnership, which includes the Chattanooga Times Free Press. No other candidate drew double-digit support.
The poll shows Republican voters continue to express concern over the state of the economy as the March 6 presidential primary draws closer. Nearly half of all respondents said jobs and the economy will be the key issues in choosing a candidate.
Gingrich has become the campaign’s front-runner nationally, and the Georgia results match polls in early-voting states such as Iowa and South Carolina, where Gingrich also leads.
In addition to polling Republicans, Mason-Dixon also posed a pair of questions to a broader sample of general election voters. The results show that Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is the stronger general election candidate.