A just-completed Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey showed the Montana Senate race to be what most observers in the state agree it is: a dead heat.
According to PPP, Republican Sen. Steve Daines and two-term Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock are tied with 48 percent of the vote each.
The figures are a stark contrast to those of the Emerson College poll a week before, which showed Daines leading Bullock by a strong 52 to 43 percent.
“I do know that the Montana Senate race is Number One in the nation for TV ads per candidate,” former Secretary of State and 2004 Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Brown told Newsmax, “That would make it appear to be a close race.”
In recent weeks, Daines has campaigned hard on the gun issue and underscored that he has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association and Bullock has an “F.”
The two held a televised debate October 10, in which Daines hit hard at Bullock’s view that Americans must learn to live with the COVID-19 virus rather than depending on a vaccine to be developed eventually.
While Daines voiced his support for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Bullock said that if Barrett was confirmed, he would be open to adding justices to the high court — “court packing,” as conservatives have dubbed the process.
The last time a sitting governor faced an incumbent senator was in 1966, when then-Republican Gov. Tim Babcock lost to then-Democratic Sen. Lee Metcalf.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.