A Fox News poll shows Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) up three points in the Tennessee Senate race with 47 percent of likely voters in her column compared to 44 percent for Democrat opponent Phil Bredesen.
The two candidates are vying to fill the seat left vacant by retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN).
Bredesen garnered a higher percentage, however, for voter certainty about what candidate will get their vote — 81 percent compared to 74 percent who said they would definitely vote for Blackburn.
Fox News reported:
Overall, one in five say they could switch their pick before November. With another eight percent undecided in their vote choice, there’s room for the race to change.
Not everyone who approves of Trump is backing Blackburn, and that makes for a close race. Among Trump approvers, 76 percent go for Blackburn and 16 percent for Bredesen, who served as governor of Tennessee from 2003 to 2011.
The economy is the top concern for Tennessee likely voters. Twenty-nine percent say that will be most important to their vote for Senate, followed closely by 27 percent who say health care.
Among those “economy voters,” Blackburn is on top by nine percent, while Bresden is ahead by 35 percentage points among “health care” voters.
“Bredesen is within striking distance of Blackburn, which is unusual for a Democrat in Tennessee,” said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducted the poll with Democrat Chris Anderson.
“But Bredesen is personally popular, with a net favorable rating of +18, and he’s up 13 points among those who are ‘extremely interested’ in the race. That’s got to cause some anxiety in Blackburn’s camp.”
The poll also reveals that the Republican candidate for governor, Bill Lee, is far ahead of Democrat Karl Dean — 55 to 35 percent, respectively.
“Sixteen percent of those backing Bredesen in the Senate race cross party lines to support Lee,” Fox News reported.
President Trump won Tennessee by 26 percentage points in the 2016 election, and he is still popular in the state, with the majority of Tennessee voters approving of the job he is doing (58-38 percent), and by an eight-percentage-point margin, voters say their vote in the Senate race will be to express support for the president (35 percent) rather than in opposition to him (27 percent).
A slight majority of Tennessee voters favor the president’s trade policies — 39 percent in favor and 37 percent opposed.
The Fox News poll was conducted September 8-11 by telephone (landline and cell phone) with 686 likely voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
You can read the complete poll results here.
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