Less than a week ahead of Election Day, Democrat Russ Feingold leads incumbent Republican Ron Johnson by the closest margin yet in the U.S. Senate race, according to the Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday.
The gap narrowed to just a one-point difference, with Feingold at 45 percent and Johnson at 44 percent among likely voters. Support for Libertarian Senate candidate Phil Anderson has dropped from four percent to three since the last poll in early October.
Democrats’ lead over Republicans in the presidential race remained steady among likely Wisconsin voters, tightening by only one point since the last Marquette polling. Results show Democrat Hillary Clinton at 46 percent and Republican Donald Trump at 40 percent.
The poll, conducted between Oct. 26 and Oct. 31, began two days before a new development in the Clinton email scandal. FBI Director James B. Comey sent a letter to Congress Friday announcing the emergence of new emails to be investigated involving Clinton and her aides.
Day-to-day poll results show little change in Clinton’s numbers among Democrats following the F.B.I. news release, while Republican support for Trump increased as much as 13 points.
The percentage of likely voters “bothered a lot” by the Clinton email issue spiked to 60 percent on Friday, but returned to 48 percent by Saturday.
This round of the Marquette Law School Poll interviewed 1,401 registered voters by phone and has a margin of error of 3.3 points.
