NY Times puts Lindsey Graham with 6-point lead over Jaime Harrison in SC Senate race
South Carolina’s three-term U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham stretched his lead over Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.
Released Thursday, the poll of 605 likely voters taken from Oct. 9-15 showed Graham leading with a 46% to Harrison’s 40%.
The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points.
The 6-point margin mirrors a Morning Consult poll from earlier this week. Previous polls in the Senate race had it race closer, even tied.
“The polls are all over the place, but one thing remains true: Lindsey Graham is in the toughest fight of his political life,” said Harrison campaign spokesperson Campbell Wallace.
Graham’s campaign remained confident it is on track to win the election.
“Make no mistake — our internal polling has us on track for a victory in November, but Sen. Graham is fighting for every vote as he never takes anything for granted,” said Graham campaign spokesperson T.W. Arrighi.
The Times’ survey reported 4% of South Carolinians favored third-party candidate, Bill Bledsoe, who dropped out of the race two weeks ago and endorsed Graham.
Bledsoe’s name remains on South Carolina ballots.
Meanwhile, 8% of voters said they are still undecided in the Senate race, including 6% of Republicans, according to the survey.
The poll found 12% of Black voters were undecided, a group that Harrison needs if he is to pull off an upset next month.
The Senate race has pulled in an unprecedented figure of fundraising dollars.
Harrison in the third quarter raised a record amount of cash for any Senate candidate in the history of the country by bringing in $57 million.
Graham raised $28 million in the third quarter, a record for Senate Republicans.
President Donald Trump still remains the favorite to win the Palmetto State.
The Times’ poll put Trump’s lead at 49% to 41% over former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump carried the reliably Republican state in 2016 by 14 percentage points.
FiveThirtyEight.com gives the Siena College/New York Times polls an A plus grade.
This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
