The critical Senate contests in both Maine and Michigan feature tight races with no clear leader, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS. But voters in the two states see their choices through two very different lenses.
In Maine, the race centers more on likely voters’ broadly negative views of incumbent Sen. Susan Collins and President Donald Trump than on their impressions of the late-breaking Democratic nominee, Troy Jackson. Many voters are still getting to know Jackson after he replaced Graham Platner following allegations of sexual assault that Platner has denied.
Michigan voters are more focused on the candidates’ issue positions amid an open-seat campaign featuring one of the most progressive Democratic candidates of this cycle in Abdul El-Sayed against former GOP congressman Mike Rogers.
Fifty percent of voters say El-Sayed’s positions are too liberal, compared with 42% who say that Rogers is too conservative. Roughly two-thirds – including broad majorities of both candidates’ supporters – think El-Sayed would try to change things a lot in Washington, while just 20% say the same of Rogers.
But both Collins and Rogers face political headwinds driven by economic concerns and negativity toward Trump. The people most likely to vote in each state say that they would prefer to see Democrats win control of the Senate after this fall’s midterm elections.
