Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) holds a narrow lead over New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) in a potential Senate match-up for 2016, according to a new poll.
{mosads}The WMUR Granite State poll found Ayotte taking 45 percent support over Hassan’s 43 percent. Nine percent of voters in New Hampshire said they remain undecided.
Hassan has not said whether she intends to run for Senate in 2016, but she’s the prize recruit for Democrats in the state. Hassan, who just won reelection as governor of New Hampshire in November, will be up for election again in 2016 and will have to choose between running for Senate or running for reelection as governor.
New Hampshire is one of several battleground states where Democrats will be looking to knock off a one-term Republican as they seek to regain the majority in the Senate. They could get a boost in 2016; New Hampshire has gone for the Democrat in the last three presidential races, and in five of the last six overall.
Still, polling shows Ayotte will be a formidable incumbent. The WMUR poll found that 48 percent of New Hampshire voters approve of the job she’s doing, against only 28 percent who say they disapprove.
Hassan is so far the only viable potential Democratic challenger. According to a Dartmouth University poll released earlier this month, Ayotte holds a 20-percentage-point lead over her next closest challenger, former Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.).
Ayotte is also likely to have a fundraising advantage. She raised $1.2 million in the first quarter of 2015, bringing her total cash-on-hand to more than $3 million.
The WMUR poll of 567 New Hampshire adults was conducted between May 6 and May 22 and has a 4.1 percentage point margin of error.