New internal poll is full of bad news for the GOP in Georgia — especially Sen. Kelly Loeffler

Although Georgia is a red state with a far-right Republican governor, it is arguably light red rather than deep red at this point: Gov. Brian Kemp narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2018, and President Donald Trump carried Georgia by only 5.1% in 2016. And a new internal poll conducted by the firm Cygnal for the Georgia House GOP Caucus is full of bad news for Georgia Republicans — especially Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who enjoys a mere 20% approval following outrage over her stock transactions during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Kemp appointed Loeffler to the U.S. Senate in December, when she took over the seat that Republican Johnny Isakson vacated due to health issues. Loeffler is defending the seat in a special election this year, and the Georgia House GOP Caucus poll (which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has obtained a copy of) found that voters prefer GOP Rep. Doug Collins (who is running for the seat) over Loeffler 62-18%. Loeffler’s campaign has been attacking Collins as insufficiently loyal to Trump.

Loeffler has also drawn a great deal of criticism for selling millions of dollars’ worth of stock back in January and February. At the time, Loeffler downplayed the threat that coronavirus posed to the United States — yet the massive stock sale, her critics have argued, shows that she was privately worried about coronavirus regardless of what she was saying publicly.

The poll also showed Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in a statistical dead heat in the presidential race, with Trump leading Biden by a mere 1% — indicating that even though Georgia is a red state, it’s by no means a state Trump can take for granted.

Discussing the poll in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, journalist Greg Bluestein explains, “Voters are evenly split on Trump, but Kemp’s disapproval rating, 52%, outweighs his approval rating: 43%. Loeffler is deeper underwater after grappling with an uproar over her stock transactions during the pandemic, with an approval of 20% and disapproval of 47%.”

Also, the poll found that only 51% of Georgia voters approve of the way Trump is handling the pandemic — and only 54% approve of Kemp’s response to the crisis.

Bluestein notes, “It’s one of the few recent polls that offer a snapshot of how Georgians view the government’s pandemic response, though it was taken before Kemp’s decision Thursday to lift the shelter-in-place order for most Georgians.”