Incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan is maintaining her lead over her Republican challenger in the hard-fought North Carolina Senate race, a new poll found.
A Public Policy Polling survey taken last week of 780 likely voters showed Hagan, a Democrat, leading Thom Tillis, 46 percent to 43 percent, despite chatter from political observers that Tillis could benefit from hot-button issues such as the Islamic State and the Ebola virus.
Hagan’s three-point lead is within the poll’s margin of error of 3.5 points.
The polling service, considered Democratic-leaning, notes that this is the third month in a row its survey has found Hagan with a lead of three or four points.
“It’s still a close race but Hagan’s lead, though small, has certainly been persistent and something dramatic may need to happen in the final two weeks to allow Tillis to come out on top,” PPP Director Tom Jensen said.
Republicans have poured their resources and hopes into toppling Hagan in North Carolina in their bid to net the six Senate seats they need to win the Senate majority.
The Senate’s GOP fundraising arm, the NRSC, recently announced it plans to pour $6 million into the final three-week effort to defeat Hagan.
But Hagan’s advantage at the ballot box may come in the form of an upsurge in Democratic support.
According to the poll, Hagan and Tillis are each getting 81 percent of the vote of their own parties.
“And if you do that as a Democrat in North Carolina, you’re generally going to win, given the party’s voter registration advantage in the state,” Jensen said.
The poll found both candidates unpopular, with Hagan edging Tillis in job approval by about three points.
The third candidate in the race, Libertarian Sean Haugh, garnered 5 percent of the vote, but when pollsters excluded him from the survey, voters still favored Hagan over Tillis by a three-point margin of 47 percent to 44 percent.
