Politics

Cain trails Obama by just 3 points

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
Font Size:

A Rasmussen survey released Monday found that Herman Cain is in striking distance of President Barack Obama in a head-to-head race.

Cain now trails Obama by just 3 percentage points, 39 percent to 42 percent. A week before, Cain made news when a Rasmussen poll showed Obama holding just a 5 percent lead.

A slate of polls released last week showed that the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza is now among the top contenders for the GOP nomination.

An IBOPE Zogby Poll released Thursday found Cain with a huge lead over the rest of the field, leading second place Mitt Romney by 20 points. A national Quinnipiac poll last week had him trailing Romney by just 5 points, but ahead of Rick Perry. A CBS News poll from last week found him tied with Romney for first place.

Cain also earned a big victory in the straw poll at the Midwestern Leadership Conference, taking 52 percent of the vote.

According to Rasmussen’s results, Cain now trails Obama by the same margin as Mitt Romney, who loses to Obama 41 percent to 44 percent in the poll, and by a smaller margin than Rick Perry.

Part of Cain’s success may be due to his 9-9-9 Tax Reform plan, which a different Rasmussen poll released Monday found to be resonating with Republican voters. Just a slim majority of Republican voters — 55 percent — said they were following news about the 9-9-9 Plan very or somewhat closely. However, 38 percent say they favor the plan. When voters are given more detail about the plan — specifically, that it replaces all federal taxes with 9 percent corporate and individual income tax and a 9 percent sales tax, but allows contributions — a 56 percent majority of Republicans say they favor the plan.

The Rasmussen poll pitting Cain against Obama is based on a survey of 1,000 likely voters from October 6 to October 7. The poll on the 9-9-9 Plan is also based on a survey of 1,000 voters from October 6 to October 7.