Rhode Island Poll: Republican Allan Fung Six Points Ahead of Democrat Seth Magaziner

Republican Allan Fung is leading his Democrat challenger, Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, by six points in the Ocean State’s battleground Second District, according to a poll released Thursday.

The poll, taken by WPRI and Roger Williams University from September 29 to October 2, found Fung at 46 percent and Magaziner at 40 percent, while nine percent of respondents said they were undecided.

Fung, an attorney and former mayor of Cranston, is hoping to replace Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI), who has represented the Second District for more than 20 years but opened up his long-held seat in January when he announced his retirement.

Despite the state long being a Democrat stronghold, the latest poll results further solidify that the congressional race is a pickup opportunity for Republicans, who have on a national level identified the Second District as flippable and spent more than a million dollars targeting Fung’s opponent, according to Open Secrets.

BREAKING: New @wpri12 @myRWU poll finds GOP positioned to win a congressional race in RI this fall for the first time since 1992 – but Dem hopes still alive@AllanFungRI has kept the 6-pt lead he had over @SethMagaziner back in June #RI02 (w/ @TimWhiteRI) https://t.co/NCoYb1t9CY pic.twitter.com/ulqH1RbhPo

— Ted Nesi (@TedNesi) October 6, 2022

Fung, a centrist Republican who served as mayor of the second-largest city in Rhode Island for more than a decade, has a lead in the poll “built in part on his outsized strength with Democrats, 24% of whom are backing him,” WPRI noted.

The poll is the first to test the race following the state’s late September 13 primary in which Fung coasted through unopposed while Magaziner was forced to pour resources into competing with fellow Democrats for the nod despite being a frontrunner throughout much of the primary phase.

The poll aligns with a Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll taken more than three months ago that showed Fung six points ahead of Magaziner, and it also is in step with a memo obtained by Breitbart News in July that detailed numerous optimistic data points for Fung.

The memo noted Fung’s high favorability rating upon leaving his mayoral post and the national climate appearing unfavorable for Democrats, and also highlighted that Magaziner did not live in the Second District, has marched alongside “defund the police” protesters, and has campaigned with “many unpopular national Democrat figures.”

Upon the poll’s release, Fung’s campaign said in a statement that the former mayor was “not focused on snapshot polls” but rather “providing relief from the Biden-Pelosi Agenda fully supported by Seth Magaziner.”

The poll was conducted among 254 likely voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 6.2 percent.