Collins leading Platner by 3 points in Fox News poll
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Susan Collins (R-Maine) is narrowly leading Democratic candidate Graham Platner in the Maine Senate race, according to a new survey. The Fox News poll, released Tuesday, shows Collins with a 3-point advantage over Platner. The Lumber State Republican garnered 50 percent support, while the Democrat brought in 47 percent.
Despite the incumbent’s edge overall, Platner led by 9 points, at 53 percent, among the two-thirds of voters who said they were “extremely” motivated to vote in the closely watched race. Another 44 percent of respondents said they would support Collins, according to the survey. Maine voters expressed concerns about both candidates in the poll, with more than half saying Platner lacks the judgment to take on the role and a similar number saying Collins has been in office for too long. The senator was first elected to the upper chamber of Congress in 1996.
She is considered a more moderate member of the Republican Party and recently joined several other GOP lawmakers and all Democrats in supporting a war powers resolution to urge the Trump administration to pull U.S. service members from the military operation in Iran. Platner’s Senate campaign has been the subject of scrutiny after old social media posts, questions around a controversial tattoo and allegations of “toxic” behavior emerged against the Democratic candidate. He has apologized for and taken down his past Reddit posts about Black people and sexual assault, but he has refuted accusations of physical intimidation or altercations with his former romantic partners. Platner is preferred by most female voters, those with a college degree and suburban and moderate voters, the Fox News poll found.
Collins has support from male voters, voters without a college degree, gun-owning households and rural voters. Other recent polls from The New York Times and the University of Massachusetts have shown the Democrat holding a slight lead over the GOP senator. The Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research poll surveyed a total of 1,003 registered voters on behalf of Fox June 23-27. The margin of error is approximately 3 percentage points.
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