Hoosier businessman Mike Braun has closed the gap with Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), according to a poll released on Wednesday.
In the NBC/Marist poll released on Wednesday, Sen. Donnelly has 49 percent support, compared to Braun, who has 43 percent in a head-to-head race amongst likely voters. Among all registered voters, Donnelly has 48 percent, while Braun has 42 percent.
The margin of error for likely voters is five points, while the margin for registered voters is 4.2 points, making the race close for the Indiana Senate seat this November.
Josh Kelley, Braun’s campaign spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday that Braun has closed the gap in the polls because Hoosiers want action from a businessman instead of the status quo from a career politician such as Donnelly.
Kelley said:
Mike Braun is surging in the polls because Hoosiers are sick of talk from career politicians like Joe Donnelly and are ready for the solutions a job creator like Mike Braun will bring to Washington. Joe Donnelly will tell Hoosiers anything; Mike Braun will get things done: that’s why Hoosier momentum is clearly building behind Braun.
In a three-way race including Libertarian Party nominee Lucy Brenton, the gap between Braun and Donnelly even more. In this scenario, the Hoosier Democrat has 44 percent, Braun has 41 percent, and Brenton has eight percent among likely voters.
Sen. Donnelly faces an increasingly competitive re-election campaign in a state that President Donald Trump won by nearly 20 points and has widely been considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats.
Braun has a net favorable rating amongst all Indianans, while 71 percent of Indiana Republicans rate him favorably, 30 percent of independents, and only eight percent of Democrats.
Donnelly faces increasing scrutiny over his silence regarding Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) plot to disrupt Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing this week.
Braun told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that Donnelly’s silence over Schumer’s plot to disrupt this week’s Supreme Court nomination hearings is more proof that Donnelly is merely Schumer’s “puppet.”
During Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Senate Democrats interrupted the hearing more than 60 times in the first hour, and U.S. Capitol Police arrested more than 22 protesters. On Wednesday, 26 protesters interrupted Kavanaugh during the first 30 minutes of the hearing.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) confirmed during the hearing on Tuesday that he, along with Schumer and other Democrats, orchestrated the disruptions with leftist protesters over the weekend.
Neither Sen. Donnelly nor any of the other red-state Democrats, replied to a request for comment from Breitbart News whether they support Schumer’s plan to interrupt and disrupt the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
Braun told Breitbart News on Tuesday, “He is basically a puppet, and Chuck Schumer is the puppeteer.”
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