Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is leading a very tight race for the Republican Senate primary in Alabama, the Alabama Daily News reported Wednesday.
"Sessions is facing a much tougher fight to win the Republican nomination than most political insiders likely anticipated," Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy's Brad Coker told the paper.
If the primary were held today, likely Republican voters choose:
- Sessions 31%.
- Former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville 29%.
- Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., 17%.
- Former Judge Roy Moore 5%.
There are 16% still undecided and another 2% choosing "other," according to the poll.
If no candidate received 50% of the vote – as this poll suggests – there will be a run-off election among the top two candidates, according to the report.
In head-to-head hypothetical matchups:
- Sessions leads Tuberville by 7 points (49%-42%).
- Sessions leads Byrne by 13 points (48%-35%).
Still, Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., is going to face long odds to keep the Senate seat blue. All three of the GOP candidates top Jones in hypothetical matchups among the general election sample:
- Sessions leads Jones by 13 points (54%-41%).
- Byrne leads Jones by 9 points (51%-42%).
- Tuberville leads Jones by 8 points (50%-42%).
"Especially with Trump running strong at the top of GOP ticket, these numbers indicate that Jones faces long odds to win re-election," Coker told the paper.
Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy conducted the survey of 400 likely Republican voters Feb. 4-6 with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. The general election sample was comprised of 625 registered Alabama voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.