Reeves Leads; Hewes’ Name ID Lacking

As reported in the Sun Herald, an independent poll by Republican pollsters Fabrizio Ward shows Tate Reeves up on Billy Hewes by a pretty healthy 51-18 margin with 31 percent undecided.

Regional breakdowns show Reeves with substantial leads in Jackson (70-9), Hattiesburg (64-9), and Tupelo (55-10). Hewes was leading on the Coast, his home base, 46-18. Obviously Hewes is going to need to get his numbers above 10 percent in the non-Coast regions to be competitive. Right now, he has virtually no name identification with 78 percent having no opinion or never hearing of him.

Hewes’ campaign said these are preliminary numbers that have more to do with name recognition than anything else and they expect that to change when regular campaign advertising begins. All fair points; and to be fair I think this is where most observes think the race is. Hewes has always trailed Reeves in name ID and he now has a little more than two months to make his final push.

For the Reeves campaign, they released this statement: “The only poll that matters is the one on Election Day; however, we are pleased that the latest independent poll shows us with a wide lead in the Republican Primary. People are responding to our campaign’s positive message of creating jobs, lowering our debt, and keeping our state the best place to raise a family.”