A Democrat is leading a Republican in the race to replace retiring Indiana GOP Rep. Susan Brooks in Congress, whose seat has been reliably red for almost two decades.
Democratic state lawmaker Christina Hale is ahead of Victoria Spartz, a Republican state senator, 50% to 45%, as the pair contest Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, according to a Tulchin Research poll for House Democrats’ campaign arm.
Hale had outraised Spartz as of June 30, $1.5 million to $1.3 million.
Brooks, a centrist, has represented the seat, which captures Indianapolis’s northern suburbs and parts of the state to the capital’s northeast, since 2013. Brooks, a former U.S. attorney who was once responsible for helping House Republicans recruit new candidates, announced last June that she wouldn’t seek a fourth term on Capitol Hill. She won her 2018 election for the district, which has been GOP-held since 2003, by almost 14 percentage points. The Cook Political Report now rates the seat a toss-up before the Nov. 3 general election.
Tulchin Research fielded another survey that was released this week for the Democratic Congressional Campaigns Committee, this time in New York’s 1st District. There in eastern Long Island, pollsters found Democrat Nancy Goroff in front of Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, 48% to 46%.
While the DCCC welcomed the Tulchin Research as it works to protect Democrats’ House majority, the party seemed to struggle to capitalize on other potential pickup opportunities. A DFM Research poll, for instance, gave GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, from Pennsylvania’s 1st District north of Philadelphia, a 12-point advantage on Democrat Christina Finello.
Tulchin Research’s Indiana survey questioned 400 likely voters in the state’s 5th District from Aug. 5-10. Its findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
