SAB/VNL Poll: Al Jaeger, Wayne Stenehjem Have Big Leads Over Democrat Opponents

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem was first elected to office in 2000. Secretary of State Al Jaeger was first elected in 1992. According to polling results from DFM Research, sponsored by SayAnythingBlog.com and Valley News Live, both men have a very strong chance to win re-election.

The SAB/Valley News Live poll was conducted by DFM Research out of Minnesota. It polled 430 “certain” or “very likely” voters between October 13 and October 16 with a margin of error of +/- 4.7 percent.

You can read the fulling poll results below.

Attorney General

Facing off against Stenehjem this year is Democrat Kiara Krauss-Parr. She is an attorney in the Grand Forks area and is married to UND Political Science professor Mark Jendrysik. She’s made an issue out of North Dakota’s rising crime rates, which owe to the state’s growing population and shifting age demographics, but doesn’t seem to have gotten much traction with the argument.

Overall, our poll showed Krauss-Parr just 17 percent support from poll respondents. The incumbent received support from 68 percent of respondents. A total of 14 percent were undecided.

Looking at the demographic breakdowns, the only places where Stenehjem has a lead of less than 40 points is in those with an education level of just a high school diploma or less, where he leads Krauss-Parr by 34 points.

Even among Democrats, Stenehjem is fairly popular. More than a third, or 37 percent, of poll respondents identifying as Democrats to our poll supported Stenehjem while just 50 percent supported Krauss-Parr.

Secretary of State

I was surprised that Al Jaeger, the longest-serving incumbent on the statewide ticket, didn’t poll above 50 percent. His Democrat opponent, April Fairfield, has been outspoken in her criticism of his job performance as well as the state’s new voter ID laws which the Legislature passed and Jaeger is enforcing. Perhaps those have dampened enthusiasm for Jaeger’s candidacy, though he still enjoys a sizable lead over Fairfield.

A total of 46 percent of respondents said they support Jaeger for re-election, while just 26 percent said they support Fairfield. Four percent said they support Libertarian Party candidate Roland Riemers, and 24 percent of voters were undecided.

Jaeger enjoys wide leads among men and women, and all age and education demographics. Looking at support by partisan affiliation, Jaeger is supported by 80 percent of Republicans which is a bit low compared to the other Republican candidates in our poll, though Fairfield enjoys support from just 67 percent of Democrats which is also surprisingly low.