Tennesseans who want wine sold in grocery and convenience stores outnumber those opposed by more than 2 to 1, the latest MTSU Poll results show.

When asked if they “favor or oppose letting grocery, convenience and other stores that sell food in Tennessee sell wine if they are located in places that allow the sale of alcoholic beverages,” 65 percent of Tennesseans say that they are in favor. Only 24 percent are opposed, and the remainder say they don’t know or refuse to answer.

The latest results are consistent with the results of previous polling on the subject.

Furthermore, majorities of Democrats and Republicans, evangelical Christians and nonevangelicals, and the young and the old all favor allowing wine sales in groceries, convenience stores and other stores that sell food.

“Previous analyses have indicated important differences in support for wine sales in groceries, attributable to generational, religious and political differences,” said Dr. Jason Reineke, associate director of the poll at Middle Tennessee State University, “but support really seems to have spread across the board at this point.”

The overall 2013 findings do not differ statistically from responses to the same question when asked by the MTSU Poll in spring 2011, when 69 percent favored wine sales and 17 percent opposed, or spring 2009, when 62 percent favored wine sales and 26 percent opposed. The chart at left shows those comparisons.

“Overall opinion on this issue has been largely in favor of wine sales in groceries for the last four years,” Reineke said. “It has also been remarkably stable over that time, considering the amount of legislative maneuvering around the issue and the associated coverage it has received in the media.”

Issues and Answers Network Inc. collected poll data Feb. 11-19 using balanced, random samples of Tennessee landline and cell phones. The data were weighted to match the latest available census estimates of gender and race proportions in Tennessee.

For more information on the MTSU Poll anytime, visit http://mtsusurveygroup.org.