A poll released Thursday shows Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statistical tie with his Democratic challenger, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, in the race for a Kentucky Senate seat.
A survey by Public Policy Polling , a Democratic leaning firm, shows Grimes with 45 percent support, and McConnell with 44 percent. The poll was conducted between July 19 and July 21 — a few days before Matt Bevin announced he would face McConnell in the Republican primary.
A Republican polling firm last week found a slightly more favorable standing for McConnell, with the incumbent leading Grimes by 8 percentage points.
But both polls show a close race — and the numbers throw a bit of cold water on the claims of Republican strategists who have said Democrats are attempting an impossible, symbolic win in Kentucky.
“Eighty percent of their time [is] focused on Kentucky,” the National Republican Congressional Committee noted in a statement Thursday. “It’s a case of Captain Ahab and the White Whale.”
