Dem poll: McCaskill leads by 6 in Missouri Senate race

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents up for reelection this fall, is leading state Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) by 6 points in a new poll. 

The polling from the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership, found McCaskill leading Hawley, 47 to 41 percent. That margin, the PAC said, is an improvement from her lead of just 2 points in the group’s poll in April. 

The new survey found Hawley’s favorability rating underwater, with 21 percent of likely Missouri voters viewing him favorably compared to the 29 percent who view him unfavorably. That too is a shift from April, when Hawley had an 8-point net favorability rating.

Hawley’s unfavorable rating rose as former Gov. Eric Greitens’s (R) numbers plummeted in the state, leading the Senate Majority PAC to argue that the scandal-ridden former governor may have dragged Hawley down. Greitens resigned late last month after accusations he blackmailed a woman with whom he had an affair with an explicit photograph that he took, and other allegations related to improper use of a political group’s donor list. Greitens has denied wrongdoing. 

Chris Hayden, a Senate Majority PAC spokesman, blasted Hawley as “part of the culture of corruption” in the state capital, which he argued would be an “electoral liability.”

“Claire continues to lead this race because Missouri voters trust her to fight for them, and they associate Hawley with a disgraced former governor and pay-to-play allegations,” he added. 

McCaskill’s favorability rating sits at 47 percent, with 45 percent of voters viewing her unfavorably, a rating similar to the Senate Majority PAC’s April findings. 

The Missouri Senate race will likely be one of the marquee races of November’s midterm election, as McCaskill is trying to defend a seat in a state President Trump won by about 18 points in 2016.

In late April, Hawley’s campaign released its own internal polling that found him up by 1 point. 

Other nonpartisan polls show the race very close.