U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) leads Phil Bredesen in the U.S. Senate race by eight points, 50 percent to 42 percent, CBS News reported in a new Battleground Tracker poll.
CBS says that in this race and several others where Democrats hope to win upset Senate victories, they are “having at best mixed results so far.” Those other states are Texas and Arizona. Democrats are having better luck in typically blue New Jersey.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cbs-poll.pdf” title=”cbs poll”]
These races have been nationalized, CBS said. By more than two to one, registered voters say national issues outweigh local ones. Voters say their vote is mainly about the country’s direction. Majorities of each candidate’s voters say they aim to put their party in control.
Those who say they support either Blackburn or Democratic former Governor Bredesen say their level of support is “very strong” (62 percent) vs. “strong” (24 percent).
Voters feel relatively more satisfied about the country’s direction in Texas and Tennessee — where the Republicans lead and where President Trump is more popular — compared to voters in New Jersey and Arizona, where the president’s approval rating is under 50 percent.
Trump looms large in each of these contests. In all of them, most who plan to vote Democratic say they are opposing Trump, while most who choose the Republican Senate candidate say their vote will be to support the president.
Only a third of those voting for Bredesen want a senator who will challenge the president as much as he or she can.
In Tennessee, 47 percent to 30 percent wanted Kavanaugh nominated to the Supreme Court. The nomination has been a large issue in the state, The Tennessee Star has reported.
Blackburn is seen as the candidate who would do a better job on immigration, crime and gun policy, CBS said.
Blackburn and Bredesen are even on health care. With no incumbent in the race, more than half of voters view each of the candidates as representing change.
The CBS News 2018 Battleground Tracker is a series of panel studies. The poll is conducted by YouGov, an online polling company. The polls interviewed 1,002 respondents in Tennessee between October 2–5. The margin of error is 3.4.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
[…] This week a CBS News poll said Blackburn leads Bredesen by eight points, or 50 percent to 42 percent. […]
[…] points, 50 percent to 42 percent, in a new CBS News Battleground Tracker poll, The Tennessee Star reported this […]
Bredesen’s last minute endorsement of Kavanaugh could badly backfire against him, even with an endorsement by popular musician Taylor Swift. What puzzles me is why Swift would wait until AFTER Bredesen supported Kavanaugh before endorsing Bredesen. Surely, Swift does not support Kavanaugh, does she? So, I am puzzled by her timing. If anything, Bredesen’s support for Kavanaugh should have turned her against Bredesen unless she shares Kavanaugh’s philosophy, which I seriously doubt.
Back to the main topic, Bredesen’s last minute decision, instead of netting him more votes away from Blackburn, could end up alienating several Democrats into turning against BOTH him and Blackburn! The Tennesseans who supported Kavanaugh are all Blackburn supporters anyway. Bredesen is wasting his time trying to get their votes. If I were Bredesen, I would be trying to mend fences with the progressive core base of the state’s Democrat party to get them excited enough to turn out to the polls for him. He isn’t doing that as far as I can see. Either Bredesen arrogantly thinks he can take liberals, blacks, labor members, working class people who lost their Tenn Care due to him, etc., for granted. Or, Bredesen may think he does not need ANY votes by Democrats to win this election. He may think that he can net a CONSERVATIVE/RIGHT-WING majority for November.
If Bredesen loses to Blackburn, it will be due to his attempt to out-right-wing the G.O.P. Trust me, that may have once worked in states like North Carolina over 25 years ago, but it quit working in Tennessee long before that!
Even though I am no supporter of Blackburn and her agenda, I will have no sympathy for Bredesen if he loses. Remember what happened to North Carolina’s then Governor Jim Hunt when he ran against Senator Helms. Pundits gave him a 25 point lead over Helms (far more than they have ever given to Bredesen in the current race) and he still barely lost to Helms.
When I saw that the channel 5 (a local liberal tv station), wlac–tv app reported that Taylor Swift had endorsed Bredesen, now that is desperation. Maybe a good entertainer but, who cares who she endorses and she may have alienated a large portion of her base. Especially to take space at a news site to report this, I am sure in Nashville there will be another crime to report any second!
VOTE REPUBLICAN !