The Committee to Defend the President released a poll late Friday that shows Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) trounces Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in the Tennessee Republican U.S. Senate primary by more than 2-to-1, 55 percent to 26 percent.
Corker announced on September 26 that he would not seek a third term in the U.S. Senate, but he has floated several trial balloons over the past several days that he is having second thoughts about that decision.
The poll was released at almost the same time that former Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN-08) announced that he was withdrawing from the race and encouraged Corker to get in.
The Tennesseean reported on Friday:
A recently conducted poll from a political action committee supporting U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s bid for the U.S. Senate found she had a 2-to-1 advantage among Republican primary voters over U.S. Sen. Bob Corker.
The survey, which was conducted Tuesday through Thursday, comes just days after speculation arose that Corker is reconsidering his decision to not seek a third term.
In a potential head-to-head matchup among Republican primary voters, the poll found 55 percent of respondents favored Blackburn, while Corker garnered just 26 percent.
The poll, commissioned by the Committee to Defend the President, which plans to spend heavily in an effort to help Blackburn, surveyed 500 likely voters and an additional 400 Republican primary voters.
As Breitbart News reported earlier this week, a poll conducted by the Senate Conservatives Fund on Monday and Tuesday showed Blackburn defeating Corker by a 49 percent to 26 percent margin among likely Tennessee GOP primary voters in a three-person race, with Fincher in a very distant third at nine percent.
The Committee to Defend the President poll results suggest that most of Fincher’s support after his withdrawal from the race will go to Blackburn, and that Corker’s ceiling among likely Tennessee Republican primary voters is 26 percent.