Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., now leads his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, by 1 percentage point in his reelection race, a major shift from last month when Barnes led Johnson by 7 percentage points, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
The Marquette University Law School poll shows Johnson leading Barnes, 49% to 48%, among likely voters. In August, Barnes was supported by 52% of likely voters compared with 45% for Johnson.
The poll, conducted Sept. 6-11 among 801 registered Wisconsin voters and 632 likely voters, is considered the gold standard of polling in the state. It has a margin of error of +/-4.3%.
Barnes' spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said polls "will go up and down."
"But our campaign remains focused on reaching every voter we need to win, and Mandela will continue to bring his message of fighting for the middle class to every corner of Wisconsin."
Johnson senior adviser Ben Voelkel, meanwhile, said the senator's campaign would keep targeting Barnes as too far left for Wisconsin voters.
"We'll make the next two months awful for him as we continue to expose the truth about him to Wisconsin voters," Voelkel said, per NBC News.
Poll director Charles Franklin said independent voters are the reason for the huge swing. Last month they favored Barnes 55% to 40%.
"This time, they're leaning to Johnson by 2 points," he said.
He also suggested that August's favorable numbers for Barnes was because he faced "very little criticism during the Democratic Party primary."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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