A trio of Republican senators are in solid positions to win tough re-election fights in November, a new battleground poll finds.
According to a new Quinnipiac survey released Wednesday, Sens. Rob Portman, Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey all are in pole position to defeat Democratic challengers next month, potentially paving the way for Republicans to retain their majority in the U.S. Senate in January.
Portman continues to outpace former Gov. Ted Strickland in Ohio, leading with 55 percent to Strickland’s 38 percent, a 17-point margin. Meanwhile, Rubio holds a 4-point advantage over Rep. Patrick Murphy, taking 48 percent support to the two-term congressman’s 44 percent.
The two real surprises of the poll are Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Pat Toomey, the Pennsylvania Republican, leads Democratic challenger Katie McGinty by an 8-point margin, taking 50 percent to McGinty’s 42 percent. This is the first time either candidate has cracked the 50 percent mark throughout the 2016 calendar year.
In the process, Toomey also outpaces GOP nominee Donald Trump by 12 points, as Trump trails Hillary Clinton by 4 points in Quinnipiac’s battleground poll released Monday. Toomey trails McGinty by less than a point in the latest RealClearPolitics average.
As for North Carolina, Sen. Richard Burr is tied with Deborah Ross in what has been an airtight race for nearly two months. Previously, Burr held a 6-point advantage over Ross in Quinnipiac’s previous poll taken in early September. Overall, the two are in a dead heat, according to the RCP average, with just over a month to go until election day.
As for Trump, he only leads in one of the four states in the latest Quinnipiac poll, holding a 5-point lead in Ohio (47-42 percent). As for Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, all of which are crucial to Trump’s path to 270 electoral votes, Clinton leads by at least 3 points in each state following her performance in the first presidential debate last Monday.
