The race for Sen. Kay Hagan’s (D-NC) Senate seat has tightened and now the Democratic senator leads each of her Republican challengers by only a few percentage points, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday.
The PPP poll found Hagan leading state House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) 44 percent to 42 percent, a decline of 15 points from when PPP last polled the race in September. The new poll also found Hagan leading tea partier Greg Brannon 44 percent to 42 percent. Similarly, in a head-to-head matchup with announced Republican challenger Heather Grant, Hagan leads 43 percent to 40 percent. Finally, against Republican Rev. Mark Harris Hagan leads 43 percent to 41 percent.
Despite the small leads in head-to-head matchups, Hagan’s approval rating has been about the same, the poll also found. In September Hagan’s approval rating was 43 percent and it is essentially unchanged at 44 percent. Hagan’s disapproval ratings have increased however. The poll found Hagan’s disapproval at 49 percent, up ten percentage points from the last poll.
Among the Republican candidates, Tillis appears to be moving away from the pack. He gets 20 percent support among Republican primary voters while Harris gets 14 percent, Brannon gets 11 percent and Grant gets 8 percent. But a whopping 47 percent remain undecided, the poll found.
The poll was conducted Nov. 8 to 11 among 701 North Carolina voters.