Republican senator Kelly Ayotte and Democratic challenger Maggie Hassan are statistically tied in the New Hampshire Senate race, days after the incumbent lawmaker rescinded her support of presidential candidate Donald Trump.
A WBUR-FM poll released Friday found Ayotte and Hassan, the state’s governor, tied at 47 percent each. The day before, a 7News survey showed the Republican up a point, 45 to 44 percent.
A majority of polls from September to early October favored Ayotte, with an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll early last month having the race at 52 to 44 percent for the Republican. She was up six points in a Boston Globe tally published last week.
But the race appears to be deadlocked amid a crucial and awkward stretch for the incumbent, who has tried to maintain a safe distance from Trump—a deeply unpopular figure among New Hampshire voters. Ayotte was one of the many GOP politicians who walked the line between not formally “endorsing” the presidential nominee and still pledging to vote for him. During a debate last week, she provided a tortured explanation of why Trump could qualify as a role model for kids, which Hassan’s team immediately turned into an attack ad. But Ayotte abandoned Trump during the weekend, after the reporting of a tape that contained audio of him making sexually predatory comments about women.
“I’m a mom and an American first, and I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” Ayotte said in a statement released by her campaign on Saturday. She said she will write in Mike Pence’s name on the ballot for president.
According to the WBUR poll, Trump’s disapproval among New Hampshire likely voters stands at 60 percent. It was at 63 percent in the 7News survey.
With such widespread dislike, the GOP presidential candidate has been regarded as a potential weight on Ayotte’s campaign. In the WBUR and 7News polls, he took only 38 and 39 percent of the vote in four-way measures of the race, with Clinton leading by three and six points, respectively.
Free of Trump, Ayotte’s campaign enters a new phase. Hassan has attacked her for her reversal and tried not to let her get by with the move so easily—Ayotte’s decision was a “transparent, craven attempt at political self-preservation,” Hassan said during the weekend—but New Hampshire political observers said Ayotte’s disavowal of the nominee likely wouldn’t have much of an effect on her race.
The Ayotte-Hassan race is one of multiple toss-up contests that will determine the Senate majority in November.
