NH poll: Dem challenger pulls ahead of Ayotte

Gov. Maggie Hassan is pulling ahead of Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), according to a new poll released Thursday.

The Democratic governor is leading Ayotte by 8 points — 46 to 38 — among likely voters, according to a WMUR Granite State Poll.

{mosads}Hassan widens her lead slightly to 9 points — 48 to 39 — when the poll includes undecided voters who have indicated which candidate they are leaning toward. That’s a bump for Hassan from her 2-point edge in August’s WMUR poll. 

The New Hampshire battle — which has been close for months — is one of a handful of purple state races that is expected to determine which party controls the Senate majority next year.

But more than a third of voters — 35 percent —  are still undecided, and another 15 percent are leaning toward a candidate but not locked down. 

The poll comes after Ayotte dropped her support for Donald Trump earlier this month in the wake of a 2005 tape that included the GOP presidential nominee describing trying to grope and kiss women without their consent. 

But the choice to distance herself from the real estate mogul hasn’t hurt her among Trump supporters. Eighty-two percent of Trump voters are voting or are likely to vote for Ayotte, according to the poll. 

But Ayotte is increasingly unpopular with voters, according to the poll.

Only 39 percent of likely voters view the GOP senator favorably, compared to 45 who view her unfavorably. October is the first month Ayotte’s favorables have been underwater in a WMUR poll. 

Hassan is viewed favorably by half of likely voters, according to the poll. Thirty-six percent view her unfavorably.

Aaron Jacobs, Hassan’s communications director, knocked Ayotte over her initial monthslong support for Trump, saying voters can “see clearly that everything’s a political calculation with Kelly Ayotte.”

“This poll shows what we already knew to be true: voters want a senator who will put the families and small businesses of New Hampshire ahead of politics,” he said in a statement.

The WMUR Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, included telephone interviews of 907 New Hampshire adults between Oct. 11 and 17, 2016. The margin of error for the poll is 3.3 percentage points. 

Hassan and Ayotte have been running neck-in-neck for months, and the Democratic governor currently leads Ayotte by 2 points on average, according to RealClearPolitics. 

This story was updated at 7:05 p.m.