(WHTM) – A new WHTM/Emerson College Polling/The Hill Pennsylvania primary poll shows Lou Barletta with a razor-thin lead over Doug Mastriano in the race for Governor and a majority of voters still undecided.

Barletta, a former congressman and Mayor of Hazelton, received 19.8% support among 1,000 likely Republican voters. State Senator Mastriano finished a close second with 19.4%, followed by businessman Dave White at 11.6%.

Former U.S. Attorney William McSwain finished fourth with 7.9% and President Pro Tempore of Pennsylvania’s Senate Jake Corman received 4%.

Melissa Hart and Charles Gerow each received 3.1%, Joseph Gale had 2.9%, and Nche Zama had 1.7%.

Candidates who receive at least 5% in either poll can qualify for a debate hosted by Nexstar Media Inc. and our media partners, WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh.

Nearly 27% of voters responded that they were undecided and were asked who they were leaning towards.

With undecided voters allocated, Barletta increases his lead to hold 26% support, followed by Mastriano with 22%, White with 14%, McSwain with 12%, Corman with 8%, Hart with 7%, Gale with 4%, Gerow with 4% and Zama with 3%.

Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling, says Barletta holds the “plurality of support” among suburban and urban voters, while Mastriano leads among rural voters.

“Barletta also leads all age groups except those aged 50-64, where Mastriano holds 29% of this age blocks’ support,” noted Kimball.

In a March 31 WHTM/Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll Mastriano received 16.2%, nearly four points higher than Barletta. The two were the only candidates to receive double digit support with McSwain, White, andGale rounding out the top five receiving between 3-7% each.

Corman, Gerow, and Hart each received less than 3% and Zama received less than 1% in the March poll.

Republicans are still waiting for former President Trump to weigh in on the race and a majority of voters say they would support a Trump-endorsed candidate. The March poll found that 61% of Pennsylvania Republican voters would support Trump’s endorsed candidate.

Methodology

The Emerson College/The Hill Pennsylvania Republican primary poll was conducted April 3-4, 2022. The Republican primary sample consisted of very likely voters, n=1,000, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE) of +/- 3 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by age and education based on 2020 turnout modeling. It is important to remember that subsets based on gender, age, ethnicity, and region carry with them higher margins of error, as the sample size is reduced. Data was collected using a cellphone sample of SMS-to-web, an online panel provided by Amazon MTurk, and an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines.

The full poll results can be found here.