Polls show tight Senate races in North Dakota and Indiana

Senate races in Indiana and North Dakota are neck-and-neck, with incumbent Democrats slightly trailing Republican candidates, according to new polls released Wednesday.

Incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana) trails Republican challenger Mike Braun by 2 points, 45 percent to 43 percent, according to a Fox News poll. Braun’s lead is within the poll’s margin of error.

{mosads}The poll found that 45 percent of likely voters in Indiana support Braun, while 43 percent of likely voters support Donnelly. An NBC News/Marist poll released last week showed Donnelly with a six-point advantage over Braun.

In North Dakota, Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp trails Republican challenger Kevin Cramer, according to a separate Fox News poll. The poll found that 48 percent of likely voters said they support Cramer and 44 percent said they support Heitkamp, also within the poll’s margin of error.

Heitkamp and Donnelly are among the ten Democratic senators running for reelection in states President Trump won in 2016 and are both considered vulnerable candidates. The Democrats would need a net gain of two Senate seats in the midterms to retake control of the chamber, where Republicans currently hold a 51 to 49 advantage.

Fox News conducted both polls with the Democratic firm Anderson Robbins Research and the Republican firm Shaw & Company Research. The polls were conducted from Sept. 8 to11, and Fox News surveyed 677 likely voters in Indiana and 701 likely voters in North Dakota. The margin of sampling error in both polls was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.