President Barack Obama has taken the lead in Missouri in the wake of GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin’s remarks about “legitimate rape” and he now leads challenger Mitt Romney 47 to 46 percent, a new
Rasmussen Reports poll showed.
Romney held the lead in the state by six points last month and has bested Obama all year. Rasmussen has now reclassified the state from Leans Romney to Toss-Up in the Rasmussen reports Electoral College Projections.
The shift in fortune for Obama in Missouri is the second blow since Akin said that in cases of “legitimate rape,” women were unlikely to get pregnant because their reproductive systems shut down.
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A Rasmussen poll yesterday showed that Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who had been considered perhaps the most endangered Democrat, had jumped to a 10-point lead over Akin.
GOP leaders including presidential nominee Mitt Romney have been urging Akin to quit the race, fearing his controversial comments could hurt other Republicans across the country.
The GOP narrowly won Missouri in 2008, with John McCain getting 49.4 percent of the vote compared to Obama’s 49.3 percent.
Rasmussen queried 500 Likely Voters in Missouri on August 22, 2012.
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