Sen. Martha McSally pulls closer to Mark Kelly in Arizona poll

PHOENIX – A poll released Tuesday found that U.S. Sen. Martha McSally’s support has remained the same, but she has still cut into Democrat Mark Kelly’s lead.

Kelly led OH Predictive Insights’ poll 48%-43% but he fell below 50% for the first time. He was up by as many as 13 percentage points in May.

A month ago, McSally was behind 52%-43%.

“Kelly got a little less likable [since the last poll],” OH Predictive Insights chief of research Mike Noble told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

“One of the main drivers is the negative advertising coming from McSally and Republican-aligned groups.”

McSally also has chipped away at the deficit among independents. The new poll showed the gap at 47%-34%.

In July, she was behind Kelly among that group, 59%-32%.

Despite the overall drop, the former astronaut’s net favorability was plus-16% to McSally’s minus-8%.

The phone poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 4%. The survey of 603 was taken Aug. 3-4.

The day after the Arizona primaries, McSally challenged Kelly to a series of seven debates. Her campaign said she agreed to three debates in Phoenix and Tucson.

Kelly’s campaign told KTAR News he agreed to one Phoenix event “and plans to participate in an additional debate with Univision.”

Kelly was ahead in four other polls released in the past two weeks, according to FiveThirtyEight.com, with his lead ranging from 2 to 18 percentage points.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jeremy Foster contributed to this report.

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