Tim Pawlenty leads the Republican primary field by a large margin in his home state of Minnesota, according to a Public Policy Polling poll of Republican voters released Friday.
Pawlenty would take 33 percent of the vote in his home state. His closest competitor is Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who takes a distant 14 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney, the perceived frontrunner, and Sarah Palin tie for third with 11 percent of the vote. Herman Cain is the only other candidate to break double digits, with 10 percent.
If Palin opts out of the race, Pawlenty and Bachmann split her votes equally, leaving Bachmann with 19 percent of the vote and Pawlenty with 38 percent.
A PPP poll from earlier this week found that just 28 percent of Minnesota voters thought their former governor should run for President, while 41 percent thought he should not run for another office. But that poll was a survey of all Minnesota voters, whereas this poll about Republican primary candidates only surveyed Republican voters. Minnesota is a traditionally blue state (PPP found that 38 percent of those it surveyed in the first poll consider themselves Democrats), something that Pawlenty has touted as a sign that as president, he could unify the country.