The critical Wisconsin Senate race between incumbent Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde is within the margin of error, according to a new poll out of the Badger State.
The Marquette Law School released a poll on Wednesday showing Baldwin earning 52% of registered voters to Hovde’s 48%. The margin was identical for the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, with Harris taking 52% and Trump 48%.
With third party candidates in the race, Harris drops to 47%, Trump to 43%, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has dropped out and backed Trump, takes 6%.
The race between Baldwin and Hovde could prove critical for control of the Senate as Democrats currently have just a two seat majority with Sen. Joe Manchin set to retire in deep red West Virginia at the end of his term.
Both results are within the 4.6 percentage point margin of error that was given for the poll, which was conducted from August 28 until September 5 and surveyed 822 registered voters in Wisconsin.
The poll found that the top three issues for voters were the economy (41%), abortion (15%), and immigration and border security (12%). Voters have generally favored Republican candidates on economic and immigration issues while backing Democrats on abortion.
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Hovde, a businessman, has focused much of his campaign on economic issues. On Tuesday, he published an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel criticizing the massive spending bills pushed by the Biden-Harris administration.
“Inflation has crushed Wisconsin families, driving up prices and making it harder than ever to get by. To fix this problem, you have to elect folks who understand the root causes and how to address them in a lasting way,” he wrote. “Through a series of legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden, Harris, and Congress have added $4.1 trillion in federal spending on top of normal appropriations acts that were already causing deficit spending. They added more debt in the last 3.5 years than during our country’s first 230-year history.”
The Marquette poll said that 72% of Democrats said that they were very excited to vote in November while only 63% of Republicans said the same.
Wisconsin is expected to be one of the key states that will determine the outcome of the presidential election, with both Trump and Harris heavily investing campaign energy in the state.
