Joe Carr Spikes in Poll as Laura Ingraham Endorses

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham endorsed Joe Carr, the Republican Senate challenger to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), as a new poll shows that he is gaining significant support in his campaign.

A new poll conducted by Triton Polling, shows that Carr has jumped sixteen points in his race against Alexander in Tennessee since May. Alexander now leads Carr 43-36 percent.

The results show that 6.7 percent of voters chose long shot candidate George Flinn, four percent chose another candidate and 10.1 percent were not sure.

In May the same poll showed Alexander leading by 44-20.

The new results show that Carr has coalesced opposition to Alexander, although the incumbent senator retains a similar margin of support.

Alexander earns a 50.5 percent job approval rating in the poll including Tennessee 23 percent of polled voters who say they strongly approve. That’s down from 59 percent in the May poll, as Carr has raised questions about his record on immigration reform.

Both polls were sponsored by Tea Party Nation, an organization supporting Carr’s candidacy.

“Lamar Alexander is the poster child for what is wrong with Washington Republicans,” said Judson Phillips, Tea Party Nation president. “In Tennessee, he is known as ‘liberal Lamar.’ He is the most liberal Republican senator running for reelection and he is the senator every Tea Party and conservative group should have targeted. There is still time for conservatives to defeat another liberal Republican.”

The survey was conducted July 10 and July 11 of 1,099 likely Tennessee Republican voters and has a margin of error of 2.9 percent.

Radio show Laura Ingraham, a champion against amnesty for illegal immigrants, endorsed Carr on Monday.

“I’m all in for Joe Carr,” Ingraham said on her show. “I think he’s, look, he’s no nonsense, a citizen legislator he’ll be and he’ll be someone who will actually listen to the people, politicians at some point do have to listen to the concerns of the people, not just the concerns of one or two, big, fat, interest groups like either LaRaza or the Chamber of Commerce, the people still count, don’t they Lamar?”

Ingraham has previously promoted Carr’s candidacy based on his record of opposing amnesty, and Carr even signed the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s “no-amnesty pledge” on her radio show.

Carr welcomed Ingraham’s comments as a “game changing moment” in the race, citing her effect in the David Brat primary win against House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).

“Laura Ingraham was one of the very first national voices who felt that our campaign against Lamar Alexander’s brazen support of amnesty was credible and viable,” Carr said. “After seeing the significant impact Laura had on the Dave Brat-Eric Cantor race, we believe this can be a game-changing moment in this campaign.”