The chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is confident that the party will be able to prevail in two Senate races in November, key for the party to retain the Upper House for the next two years.
Speaking at an event organized by Politico on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Senator Gary Peters of Michigan said Jon Tester will win his race in Montana and Sherrod Brown will do the same in Ohio.
"Jon Tester is as authentic a person from Montana as you could possibly get," he began. "He understands folks in Montana. He's out in the community. Montana is a really big state geographically, but population-wise is smaller, and so he's gotten to know a lot of folks in a more personal way that allows you to transcend some of that."
Tester is facing Republican Tim Sheehy, an entrepreneur and former Navy SEAL. FiveThirtyEight's polling aggregator shows a tough race, with the Republican candidate holding the lead in practically all recent polls.
However, Tester took the lead in the latest survey. Conducted by RMG Research among 540 registered voters, it shows the Democrat with 49% of the support compared to Sheehy's 44%.
It remains to be seen whether the study was an outlier or a change in trend, as the four previous polls conducted between late June and early August had Sheehy in the lead by margins ranging between two and six percentage points.
As for the Ohio race, Peter said "I don't know if any Democrat can win Ohio, unless their name is Sherrod Brown." "Which is why I say, in this election, I have really good news for folks: I got a guy named Sherrod Brown who's running in Ohio."
Brown, on his end, is facing challenger Bernie Moreno. The incumbent is on the lead in all latest polls, although by a relatively small margin. A late May study by National Public Affairs had him with an 8-point lead, but the figure has shrunk to 5 points in the most recent poll, conducted between July 20 and August 12 by ActiVote (53% to 48%).
Democrats currently hold the Senate by having Vice President Kamala Harris as a tie-breaker for any 50-50 tie. However, as Senator Joe Manchin III is set to retire and Republicans not facing challenging races in their seats up for election, Democrats will need to win all competitive races.
Overall, Democrats are set to compete in seven races. Montana, Ohio and Michigan are rated "toss-up" by The Cook Political report. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona are rated "lean Democrat."
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