Romney Leads Paul in VA Republican Primary; Republicans Still Skeptical of Presidential Hopefuls SALEM, Va., March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mitt Romney leads Ron Paul by 35 percentage points (56%-21%) in the Super Tuesday Republican Presidential primary election in Virginia according to The Roanoke College Poll. Romney leads Paul in every demographic group, although Paul does best with younger voters. The Roanoke College Poll interviewed 377 likely Republican primary voters in Virginia between Feb. 13 and Feb. 28. The Poll has a margin of error of + 5 percent. Romney holds a narrow but statistically insignificant edge even if the choices included Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who are not on the Virginia ballot. In that scenario, Romney leads Santorum (31%-27%), followed by Gingrich (13%) and Paul (12%). The Republican primary voters named the economy (45%) as the most important issue facing the country, followed by unemployment (21%) and the budget deficit (11%.) These results are very similar to the general population survey results released earlier this week. Among the remaining Presidential candidates, Santorum had the highest favorable rating (47%) followed by Romney (36%), Paul (29%), and Gingrich (25%). Santorum was the only candidate to have a higher percentage of favorable impressions than unfavorable. By way of contrast, President Obama's favorable rating among this group of likely GOP primary voters was 27 percent. "Republican primary voters in Virginia aren't particularly fond of their own candidates at this point," said Dr. Harry Wilson, director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research. You would expect at least one of them to top the 50% approval rating mark, but none did. "To state the obvious, it appears inevitable that Mitt Romney will win the primary," Wilson said, "but with a higher unfavorable rating (36% favorable, 37% unfavorable) among those voting, he is not an overly popular choice. Whichever candidate gets the GOP nomination, he will have a lot of work to do in Virginia. More information may be found on the Roanoke College website: http://bit.ly/wxq7YJ SOURCE Roanoke College