Another Oklahoma Senate poll released on Wednesday has former conservative House Speaker T.W. Shannon with a slight lead over Rep. James Lankford (R-OK), the more moderate candidate in the nation’s most conservative state who once led by 35 points before former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Shannon.
Shannon received 32% to Lankford’s 30.8% in a poll commissioned by the Tea Party Express. When a head-to-head runoff between Shannon and Lankford was polled, Shannon held an 8-point lead over Lankford, which is consistent with the 10-point lead Shannon had in Public Opinion Strategies poll conducted on behalf of a group that supports Shannon.
Shannon has since been endorsed by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), who campaigned for him at a rally in Tulsa with Palin, the Senate Conservatives Fund, and conservative talk radio host Mark Levin, among others.
Sal Russo, of the Tea Party Express, said that “Shannon has overcome the large lead held by Lankford in earlier polling, and he has gained the upper hand with Tea Party identified voters in both voter favorability and in ballot choice.”
The poll also found that “Shannon has the highest favorability among self-identified tea partiers as well as likely Republican voters.” The primary to fill retiring Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) seat is on June 24.
NSON Opinion Strategy conducted its survey of 400 likely Republican primary voters from April 23-29.
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