Poll: McConnell pulls ahead of Grimes

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may be pulling ahead from Alison Lundergan Grimes as the toughest race of his political career nears its end, a new poll suggests.

The latest and final Bluegrass Poll finds that McConnell holds a 5-point lead over Grimes. And his support is growing: In last week’s poll from the same organization, he was up by only 1 point.

{mosads}McConnell is also leading among men and women. Grimes has attacked his record on women’s issues.

One bright spot for Grimes is her support among younger voters. She holds a 4-point lead among voters age 49 and younger.

But McConnell holds a much more pronounced advantage among voters older than 49 — he leads by 10 points.

For the first time in this series of polls, McConnell received support from more than 80 percent of Republicans. Grimes had less luck within her party. Seventy-three percent of Democrats polled said they were supporting her, while 23 percent said they were supporting McConnell.

For months, the race has seemed neck-and-neck. National Democrats saw an opportunity in the charismatic but young Grimes to unseat McConnell. If McConnell manages to hold on next week and Republicans take the Senate majority, he stands to become the next majority leader.

The poll — produced by WHAS-TV, WKYT-TV, The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader — was conducted from Oct. 25 through Oct. 29. The results are taken from the response of 597 likely voters, contacted via phone. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.