For the first half of the year, the political picture in Colorado appeared a bit unclear.
A dearth of political polling left the mood of the Colorado voter in question — known only through anecdotal interviews on the trail. But five months before the November election, we are getting a first glimpse at the broader mood of the state’s voters.
CBS News released its in Colorado, based on an online poll from YouGov. The company is not the gold standard — FiveThirtyEight gives the firm on its pollster ratings — but the survey is comprehensive in is sweep of the mood.
The survey was conducted June 21-24 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.3 percentage points.
Here’s three takeaways from the survey:
1. The anti-candidate message is the winner. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump start the presidential campaign deadlocked, 40 percent to 39 percent respectively with 10 percent undecided.
Whatap the main reason people are supporting Trump: 55 percent say it’s mainly to oppose Clinton. Whatap the main reason people are supporting Clinton: 43 percent say it’s mainly to oppose Trump.
This helps explains why both political parties are rallying against the other side more than behind their own candidate.
2. We are scared. Sixty percent of the state believes the nation is doing “too little” to combat the threat of terrorism.
More fear: Half the voters say Trump’s campaign makes them feel scared, while 43 percent say Clinton’s campaign makes them feel scared.
3. A generic U.S. Senate race is a dead-heat. Asked whether they would support the Republican or Democratic candidate this November — without including the candidate’s names — the race is tied, 39 percent Democrat to 38 percent Republican. Another 20 percent are undecided.
This number is not shocking in itself. But it shows what the Senate race could look like if both parties are evenly matched in the contest. This year, they are not. Bennet starts with the power of incumbency — in the bank — and positive ratings. His approval rating in the survey is 60 percent — which seems high based on prior polling.
And Darryl Glenn,, he’s starting broke and the underdog. He’s surpassed expectations before, but he only had to appeal to relatively small constituencies — 4,000 at the state GOP convention and 358,000 in the Republican primary Tuesday. Now he must win over at least a majority of the state’s 3.6 million voters.
See the full survey .