Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Democratic challenger Jason Kander are in a virtual tie heading into the final week of the campaign.
The GOP senator is leading Kander by 1 percentage point among likely voters — 47 percent to 46 percent — according to a poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research released Friday. Five percent of voters are undecided.
{mosads}“I suppose there are some personal things going on with Blunt, because he has been around forever, and over the years you make enemies and people say, ‘Yeah, it’s time to get rid of him,’” Mason Dixon Polling’s Brad Corker told the Post-Dispatch.
Blunt is leading with older voters and men, according to the Post-Dispatch, and Kander, Missouri’s secretary of State, is ahead among younger voters and women.
The Missouri race will help decide which party controls the Senate next year. Democrats need to pick up five seats — or four if they retain the White House — to win control of the upper chamber.
National Democrats and Kander have spent months arguing that Blunt, a member of Senate leadership, has lost touch with Missouri voters. Blunt wasn’t initially expected to be vulnerable, but he is only leading in the race by an average of 1 point, according to RealClearPolitics.
Despite the tight Senate race, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has a sizable lead over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in Missouri, 47 percent to 42 percent, according to the Mason-Dixon poll. Seven percent of likely voters say they are undecided heading into the final week of the race.
The poll was conducted Oct. 24–26 among 625 likely Missouri voters. The survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.