Poll gives Sheehy slight lead over Tester

Montana’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy slightly leads Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in the race and has picked up more undecided voters than the three-term incumbent during the past five months, but the contest is still within the margin of error, according to a new Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted this week.

The poll, conducted Aug. 5-6 and released Thursday morning, is also the first conducted in Montana since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, and shows she trails Republican former President Donald Trump in Montana by 15 percentage points in both a head-to-head matchup and when third parties are accounted for.

The survey shows that there is a wide split between men and women in Montana in terms of who they plan to support in the Senate race, that Harris has quickly garnered the favor of college-educated voters over Trump and is more favorable to voters than President Joe Biden, and that Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte maintains a neutral approval rating.