

One potential trouble spot for the Democrat: More voters in a late September Franklin and Marshall College Poll viewed Oz has having policies that would improve voters’ economic circumstances, with the economy and inflation remaining the top concern for voters across a range of surveys. Fetterman’s favorability ratings are also consistently higher than Oz’s.

(The Poll of Polls is an average of the four most recent nonpartisan surveys of likely voters that meet CNN’s standards.) Fetterman is still overperforming Biden, who narrowly carried Pennsylvania in 2020. In a CNN Poll of Polls average of recent surveys in the state, Democrat John Fetterman, the state lieutenant governor, had the support of 50% of likely voters to Oz’s 45%. Pat Toomey has tightened since the primaries in May, when Republican Mehmet Oz emerged badly bruised from a nasty intraparty contest. But the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. The most consistent thing about CNN’s rankings, dating back to 2021, has been Pennsylvania’s spot in first place. Incumbent: Republican Pat Toomey (retiring) As Republicans look to flip the Senate, which Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has called a “50-50 proposition,” they’re trying to pick up the first two and hold on to the latter.
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The race for Senate control may come down to three states: Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, all of which are rated as “Toss-up” races by Inside Elections with Nathan L.
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 3 CHEATS TV
But this is the time of year when poor fundraising can really become evident since TV ad rates favor candidates and a super PAC gets much less bang for its buck. Don Bolduc is far from the nominee the national GOP had wanted. Arizona nominee Blake Masters is now without the support of the party’s major super PAC, which thinks its money can be better spent elsewhere, including in New Hampshire, where retired Army Brig. In two of those states, however, the GOP has significant problems, although the states themselves keep the races competitive. Republicans’ top pickup opportunities have always been Nevada, Georgia, Arizona and New Hampshire - all states that Biden carried in 2020. While the issue sets have fluctuated, the Senate map hasn’t changed. Democratic ads also feature women talking about the threat of a national abortion ban should the Senate fall into GOP hands, while Republicans have spent comparatively less trying to portray Democrats as the extremists on the topic. Cops have been ubiquitous in TV ads this cycle - candidates from both sides of the aisle have found law enforcement officers to testify on camera to their pro-police credentials. And with some prices inching back up after a brief hiatus, the economy and inflation - which Americans across the country identify as their top concern in multiple polls - are likely to play a crucial role in deciding voters’ preferences.īut there’s been a steady increase in ads about crime too as the GOP returns to a familiar criticism, depicting Democrats as weak on public safety. Biden’s approval rating stands at 41% with 54% disapproving in the latest CNN Poll of Polls, which tracks the average of recent surveys. Republicans, who have midterm history on their side as the party out of the White House, have hammered Biden and Democrats for supporting policies they argue exacerbate inflation. Former President Donald Trump’s omnipresence in the headlines gave Democrats another foil.īut the optimism some Democrats felt toward the end of the summer, on the heels of Biden’s legislative wins and the galvanizing high court decision, has been tempered slightly by the much anticipated tightening of some key races as political advertising ramps up on TV and voters tune in after Labor Day. Wade gave Democrats the opportunity to paint a contrast as Republicans struggled to explain their support for an abortion ruling that the majority of the country opposes.

Then the US Supreme Court’s late June decision overturning Roe v. The cycle started out as a referendum on President Joe Biden - an easy target for Republicans, who need a net gain of just one seat to flip the evenly divided chamber.
