Montana Poll: Sheehy Up 6 Points in Senate Race

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Republican candidate Tim Sheehy holds a 6-point lead over incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Tester in the race for a U.S. Senate seat in Montana, according to a new poll.

Sheehy has 50.8% support and Tester 44.7% in the poll conducted by American Pulse Research and Polling on behalf of NonStop Local, a regional network of television stations.

“It’s clear Tim is winning the ground war by traveling from town to town across Montana, looking Montanans in the eye, and sharing his commonsense agenda to defeat inflation, bring down costs, seal our border, fight for Montana families, and put America First!” Sheehy for Montana spokesperson Jack O’Brien said, The Hill reported.

Montana is considered a key race in determining which party will control the Senate in the next Congress. Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority.

Poll respondents gave Sheehy the advantage when answering several questions.

The Republican’s favorable rating is 49.8%, compared to Tester’s 44.7%, the survey found.

Montana voters say Sheehy would do a better job than Tester on the economy and inflation by a margin of 50.6% to 42.1%.

Asked which candidate would do a better job on the issue of immigration, 56.2% Montana voters say Sheehy and 39% say Tester, who previously served as senior Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

Regarding the abortion issue, 45.3% say they support Sheehy and 42.9% say they support Tester, who has a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Tester’s supporters dispute the findings of the poll, which did not include Libertarian candidate Sid Daoud, whom National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines, R-Mont., has encouraged to drop out of the race.

“Jon Tester will be reelected in November because of his strong record delivering for veterans, fighting to lower costs for working families, and defending Montana’s way of life,” said Monica Robinson, a spokesperson for Montanans for Tester, The Hill reported. “Jon is focused on delivering for Montana families, not inaccurate polls from partisan pollsters.”

FiveThirtyEight, which does not include American Pulse among its more than 500 polling firms, shows Sheehy with a 51%-to-45% lead over Tester in surveys ending Aug. 12.

The NonStop Local poll was conducted Aug. 10-12 among 538 registered Montana voters. It has a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.