A new poll finds that Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has fallen behind her Republican opponent due to her opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
A new poll by Remington Research Group found that of the 1,555 likely Missouri voters surveyed late last week, 48 percent said they were planning to vote for Republican candidate Josh Hawley while 46 percent said they planned to vote for McCaskill.
When asked if McCaskill’s opposition to Kavanaugh affected their voting decision, 49 percent said it made them less likely to vote for the Democratic senator, while only 42 percent it made them more likely to vote for her.
The incumbent Democrat is in a hotly contested race, and support for Hawley has been surging in the polls over the past month. The Real Clear Politics poll average puts Hawley ahead of McCaskill by one point and shows that the race has grown increasingly competitive going into November.
Democrats in competitive races will have to grapple with the electoral consequences of either supporting or opposing the embattled Supreme Court nominee. A new poll in West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has been fighting for re-election, found that a majority of voters think Kavanaugh should be confirmed. An overwhelming majority, 59-30 percent, thought Kavanaugh’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday was more believable than testimony from Christine Blasey Ford.
Ford has accused the federal judge of sexually assaulting her at a drunken high school party 36 years ago, despite all the eyewitnesses she’s named saying, under penalty of federal perjury, that they recall no such thing ever happening.
In Indiana’s tight Senate race with a Democratic incumbent, Sen. Joe Donnelly, Republican challenger Mike Braun leads in neck-and-neck polls. Braun has come out in support of Kavanaugh, while Donnelly has come out against.
NEW: Mike Braun, Sen. Joe Donnelly's challenger in the upcoming election, released the following statement regarding Donnelly's decision to vote no on Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court: pic.twitter.com/lYtPbOtBVR
— WRTV Indianapolis (@wrtv) September 28, 2018
