James P. Bradley, a little-known Republican, is polling within 1 point of state Sen. Kevin de Leon in his run for the U.S. Senate in California, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Bradley is trailing de Leon, the California state senator, by 1 point in a competition for second place in the June 5 primary that would put the winner in a November runoff election, per poll results from the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, The Sacramento Bee’s report said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., holds a commanding lead, the report said.
"The question now boils down to who will be her challenger in the fall? This poll shows it’s an open question,” poll director Mark DiCamillo said.
In the poll, which listed all 32 candidates running for the U.S. Senate position:
- 28 percent support Feinstein
- 11 percent support de Leon
- 10 percent support Bradley
- 37 percent are undecided
Bradley only has 75 "likes" on Facebook and 1,200 Twitter followers. His profile includes President Donald Trump’s "Make America Great Again" tagline, and he posts support for cities and counties that are fighting against the sanctuary state law, The Sacramento Bee report said.
"This was just very startling to me because one person rose out of the pack without any (Republican) challenger nearby," said DiCamillo.
Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College government professor, also was surprised at the result. “Maybe it could be that Bradley is a relatively common name and someone could be associating him with some other Bradley,” Pitney said.
The Institute of Governmental Studies’ poll was conducted April 16-22 among 1,738 likely voters.
Billionaire donor Tom Steyer announced on April 18 that he would support de Leon in the Democratic primary instead of Feinstein.
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