King, Latham top Iowa GOP Senate field
Harper Polling, the new GOP automated pollster, is out with the first Iowa survey since Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin announced his retirement and the results aren’t much of a surprise: GOP Rep. Steve King would be a formidable candidate in a primary while GOP Rep. Tom Latham could have more traction in the general.
TheIowaRepublican.com interprets the state of play surrounding two prospective candidates with notable ideological and stylistic differences:
While King was the strongest candidate in the primary, it’s Latham who emerges as the best general election candidate. The perception that Latham is the candidate who can win in November would also likely give him a boost in a primary contest whether that’s against King or someone else.
In many ways this poll confirms what many pundits and political insiders suspected. King is a strong primary candidate but weakens a bit in the general election. Latham on the other hand is the opposite. Since nobody really believes that Latham and King will primary each other, should Latham face a primary from someone besides King, he would likely crush his competition.