Matt brought you a recent Morning Consult survey that showed the Arizona Republican trailing his primary challenger, former state Sen. Kelli Ward, by 14 points—but in a new poll released Monday, Ward has widened her lead even more.
According to the JMC Analytics survey, if the Republican primary were held over the weekend Ward would be ahead of Flake by 26 points, 47 percent to 21 percent. Twenty-nine percent of voters were undecided.
Flake’s favorability numbers in the poll aren’t looking great, either. Twenty-two percent of registered voters in the state of Arizona had a favorable opinion of the Republican senator, while 67 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of him.
Given President Trump's popularity in the state, the poll also asked respondents about how much they factored in the president's opinion of the candidates.
If the president, who has a 76-21% approval rating among Republican likely primary voters, made an endorsement, 56 percent of voters said they would be more likely to support that person.
Trump and Flake have been highly critical of one another, with the president already seeming to throw his support behind Ward in the race.
While not an official endorsement, Trump tweeted that it was “Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He’s toxic!”
Beyond that, a pro-Trump super PAC has also thrown $20,000 into help Ward, according to federal election filings.
The JMC Analytics survey has a margin of error of 4.4 percent and polled 500 registered voters in Arizona between August 26-27.