Polls: Dems pull ahead in two key Senate battles
Democrat challengers are pulling ahead in two key Senate races in the final days of the election, according to polls released Thursday.
In North Carolina, Democrat Deborah Ross is leading Sen. Richard Burr (R), 49 to 45 percent, in a Quinnipiac University swing state poll.
{mosads}Ross has pulled ahead in the race over the past month. In Quinnipiac University’s October poll, Burr led in the race 48 to 47 percent.
“The race between incumbent Sen. Richard Burr and Deborah Ross has gone back and forth for months,” said Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “She carries the narrowest of leads into the final days of the campaign.”
Ross is also leading Burr among early voters, 60 to 35 percent, according to the poll. Burr, however, has a narrow lead with independents, carrying 46 percent compared to Ross’s 43 percent.
Burr leads Ross on average by less than a percentage point, according to the RealClearPolitics average of state polling.
In Pennsylvania, Quinnipiac found that Katie McGinty, the former chief of staff for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, is narrowly leading Sen. Pat Toomey, 48 to 47 percent.
That’s a shift from last month, Toomey at a 4-point lead in the race with 49 percent compared to McGinty’s 45 percent.
“Katie McGinty closes the gap and sends a shiver through the GOP. It’s a tossup for what many thought was a safe Republican Senate seat six months ago,” said Tom Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
But Toomey is narrowly leading in independent voters, with 49 percent backing the GOP senator compared to 48 percent for McGinty.
McGinty has recently pulled ahead in polling. She is leading Toomey on average by 5 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
Both of the Quinnipiac Polls were conducted between Oct. 27 and Nov. 1 and have margins of error of 4 percentage points.
In North Carolina, 602 likely voters were surveyed while 612 likely voters were surveyed in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania and North Carolina fights are expected to help determine which party controls the Senate as the battle for the upper chamber is going down to the wire.
Democrats need to net five seats — or four if they retain the White House — to regain the majority.
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