Poll: Blunt up 7 points in Missouri Senate race

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) holds a 7-point lead over Democratic challenger Jason Kander, a new poll shows.

{mosads}The survey released Tuesday from Remington Research Group — which was founded by Jeff Roe, former campaign manager to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — found the GOP senator leading the Missouri secretary of State 47 to 40 percent, with 7 percent of voters still undecided.

Libertarian candidate Jonathan Dine took 4 percent, while Constitution Party candidate Fred Ryman received 2 percent.

The poll shows a slight uptick for Blunt. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch survey less than two weeks ago found Blunt leading by 4 points, which was within that poll’s margin of error.

The new poll of 1,280 likely voters,  conducted on Aug. 5 and 6, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

More attention is being focused on the Missouri Senate race recently as Democrats try to regain the Senate majority. They’ll need to net five seats — or four seats and retain the White House — to win control of the upper chamber. Democrats are defending 10 seats, while Republicans are defending 24.

Kander recently launched a bus tour across the Show Me State, and a Republican outside group has already poured more than $2 million into the race to defend Blunt.

But Blunt, the vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, still leads in the RealClearPolitics polling average and holds a sizable cash advantage over Kander.