NASHVILLE - A new poll from Fox News shows Republican Marsha Blackburn's lead over Democrat Phil Bredesen has widened slightly in Tennessee's U.S. Senate race over its early September survey.
Conducted Saturday through Monday, the poll found 48 percent of 666 likely voters surveyed said they intend to vote for Blackburn, a Brentwood congressman, while 43 percent they would vote for former governor Bredesen.
Still, Real Clear Politics' latest averaging of four polls in the contest show Blackburn with just a half a percent edge over Bredesen.
Bill Lee and Karl Dean are seen in this combination photo.Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee, meanwhile, had a 17-point lead or 52.35-35 percent lead over Democrat Karl Dean in the Nov. 6 contest. The Real Clear Politics spread, based on an average of four polls, is 12.5 points in the contest.
In the meantime, the University of Virginia Center of Politics' Sabato's Crystal Ball has now moved the Tennessee governor's race from "Likely Republican" to "Safe Republican" for Lee, a political novice facing Dean, a former Nashville mayor.
The Fox poll's overall margin of error in its latest poll is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. A Fox survey earlier in September had Blackburn with a 3-point edge over Bredesen or 47-44 percent as they fiercely battle to replace retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Chattanooga.
But two other recent polls conducted last month showed Bredesen slightly ahead.
The Fox poll comes in the midst of the Senate fight over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as President Donald Trump's trip to Johnson City on Monday.
The president told supporters in Johnson City that "a vote for Marsha is really a vote for me" as he sought to bolster enthusiasm among his supporters in the mid-term election. Early voting starts Oct. 17.
Fox's poll also shows both Blackburn and Bredesen's favorability rankings have dropped and negative perceptions increased as an army of independent super PACs aligned with one party or another dump millions of dollars on TV and digital ads attacking the respective candidates.
Bredesen's favorability fell from 54 percent to 51 percent in the latest Fox survey while Blackburn's dipped slightly from 51 percent.
And negative views of Bredesen went up 3 points from the previous poll to 39 percent while Blackburn's went from 39 percent to 41 percent.
Other poll take aways:
» Blackburn has apparently erased a substantial enthusiasm gap among supporters. The poll says the percentage of Blackburn supporters saying they were "extremely" interested in the Senate contest rose 11 points, from 33 percent to 44 percent.
Meanwhile, enthusiasm among Bredesen supporters dipped from 44 percent who said in Fox's September poll that they were "extremely" interested in the race. It's now 40 percent.
» Women support Bredesen by 5 points, while men are more likely to pick Blackburn by 17. Among white men, Blackburn's lead grows to 30 points.
"Bredesen stays in the game by garnering greater party loyalty (92 percent of Democrats back him compared to 82 percent of GOP for her), while also taking 10 percent of Republicans," Fox News reported in its story on the Tennessee survey.
Bredesen has sought to position himself in the campaign as a pragmatic moderate who will back Trump and Senate Republicans when he agrees with them and oppose them when he doesn't.
Tennessee was one of five battleground states featured in Fox News' latest round of polling.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.