Rand Paul Starts Out With Big Lead in Kentucky Senate Race

The first poll since insurgent GOP candidate Rand Paul won Tuesday's Kentucky Senate primary has him vaulting to a 25-point lead over the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Jack Conway.

Paul leads Conway, 59 percent to 34 percent, with 4 percent preferring someone else and 3 percent undecided, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted May 19. In late April, his lead had been 9 points and in March it was 14 points.

What remains to be seen is how much of this was a bounce from his big victory over Secretary of State Trey Grayson and the attention his candidacy got because of its connection to the Tea Party movement and how Paul performs as a first-time candidate in a statewide general election race.

Paul is seen favorably by 69 percent of voters and unfavorably by 28 percent, but two important statistics are that a third of voters see him "very" favorably and only 4 percent don't know enough about him to be sure.

Conway is seen unfavorably by 45 percent of voters and favorably by 44 percent, with only 15 percent describing themselves as "very" favorable. Eleven percent say they don't know enough about him to have an opinion.

The poll shows Paul appealing to 33 percent of Democratic voters while holding down 82 percent of Republican support compared to 59 percent for Conway among Democrats. Paul leads among unaffiliated voters by about 3-to-1. While Paul has a big lead among conservatives and Conway among liberals, they roughly split voters who describe themselves as moderate.

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