A new Emerson College poll shows Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., in a tie at 45 percent against her presumptive opponent, Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley. That’s quite bad for the incumbent, but also unsurprising given her vulnerability and similar polls from earlier this cycle.
The more interesting result of the poll, however, might be the other big contest in Missouri this year: The ballot referendum being staged by unionists to overturn the state’s new right-to-work law.
Missouri became the 28th state to enact right-to-work last year, but the unions are trying to reverse that. This poll suggests that it will all come down to the 20 percent of voters who are undecided. Each side, for and against right-to-work, has 40 percent support right now. With 2018 shaping up as a lousy year for the GOP getting out its voting base, the unions certainly have a shot. But with the upcoming Supreme Court decision in Janus potentially disemboweling public sector unions, it could by a Pyrrhic victory.
Only two states have ever repealed their right-to-work laws. Indiana did so in 1965, only to become a right-to-work state again in 2012. New Hampshire repealed its law in 1949 after embracing right-to-work two years earlier.
