Montana Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy has opened up a six-point lead over Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), according to a poll that reveals voters trust Sheehy more on key issues.
The American Pulse Poll conducted for NonStop Local finds that 51 percent of registered voter respondents back Sheehy, placing him clearly ahead of Tester in Montana’s U.S. Senate race. Tester garners 45 percent of the 538 registered voters’ support. Another four percent of respondents are undecided.
The poll was conducted from Saturday through Monday (August 10-12) in the days following Trump’s rally in Bozeman, Montana, on Friday. Sheehy appeared and spoke alongside the former president at the rally.
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Regarding top issues, 28 percent said “inflation, economy, [and] jobs” is their number one issue heading into the election. Affordable housing came in second place at 15 percent, and immigration and the border followed at 14 percent.
Voters trust Sheehy more on immigration and the economy. He leads on immigration by a seventeen percent margin, on the economy by a nine percent margin, and on the issue of abortion by a two percent margin.
Voters say their values align more with Sheehy’s by a seven percent margin and that Sheehy would be a “better leader for Montana” over Tester by six percentage points.
“While there’s still a lot of time before Election Day, it appears Montana could be on the cusp of delivering a Republican Majority in the U.S. Senate,” stated American Pulse Research & Polling President Dustin Olson in a release.
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“Likely driving this result, Montanans chose ‘Economy and Inflation’ as their #1 Issue and that they trust Tim Sheehy to handle it better than Senator Jon Tester,” he added.
The poll also gauged the temperature of the presidential race in Montana, finding Trump has a comfortable 14-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump is supported by 52 percent of respondents, to Harris’s 38 percent. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. followed with six percent, and no other candidate eclipsed five percentage points.
The poll’s margin of error is ± 4.2 percentage points.