KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new poll shows Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt with an 11-point lead over Democratic candidate Trudy Busch Valentine.

The poll, exclusively done by FOX4/Emerson College/The Hill, shows Schmitt with 49% of the vote. Busch Valentine had 38% while 10% were undecided.

In all, 1,160 people were surveyed, and the margin of error was +/- 2.8%.

“Busch Valentine is favorable but trailing by a significant margin,” Executive Director of Emerson College Polling Spencer Kimball said in an interview with FOX4 Thursday. 

According to the poll, 33% of the people surveyed have a “very favorable” view of Schmitt while 20% have a “somewhat favorable” view of him.

“He’s over that 50% threshold for voters, and Busch Valentine’s in the 40s, so she has a lot more work to do to improve her name recognition,” Kimball said. “So I think at this stage in the race, he’s really winning on the name recognition, which obviously carries a lot of weight in the state.”

Busch Valentine is a political newcomer and an Anheuser Busch heiress. She won her Democratic primary over Lucas Kunce by just 5 points.

Schmitt, on the other hand, defeated Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler by 24 points and former Gov. Eric Greitens by 27 points in the Republican primary. Schmitt trailed in a FOX4/Emerson College/The Hill poll released less than two months before the primary.

Kimball said Republicans come together before the general election.

“On the other side, I find that the Democrats kind of hold that grudge a little bit longer and might take a little bit more time for those campaigns to come together,” Kimball said. “Particularly because the Republicans are generally in line on the issues and the Democrats have more of a divide I find on the progressive versus moderate wings of the party.”

Of the respondents, 45% said the economy, jobs, inflation and taxes were the most important things determining their vote in November. That was by far the most important thing to Missourians.

Threats to democracy came in second at 15%. Abortion came in third at 13%. Kimball said Republicans win on the economic issue with voters as well.