Danny Tarkanian, the Las Vegas businessman, and pro-Trump candidate, leads Senator Dean Heller (R-Nev.) in the first released poll of the Republican primary contest in Nevada.
The survey from JMC Analytics finds Tarkanian at 44 percent and Heller at 38 percent, with seventeen percent saying they remain undecided.
This is but the latest example of an anti-establishment candidate doing very well in early polling numbers, following Dr. Kelli Ward in Arizona, who was leading incumbent Senator Jeff Flake by 26 points in the only poll taken for that race, before Flake said he would not seek re-election last week.
Anti-establishment judge Roy Moore defeated incumbent Luther Strange in the Alabama Senate Republican primary to fill Jeff Sessions seat. Moore also leads his Democrat counterpart by 11 points in the latest poll there.
Tarkanian, who has never won elected office despite five previous bids, is viewed favorably by 59 percent of Nevadans and unfavorably by 24 percent. Heller, the first-term incumbent, is at 51 percent favorable and 43 unfavorable.
Heller famously joined six other Republicans in voting against the GOP’s initial attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, before finally voting for the so-called “skinny” repeal. Trump had hinted at the time that his vote on healthcare could make-or-break him.
Tarkanian is among the many candidates who are being supported by Steve Bannon, in his season of open war on the Republican establishment. Bannon is recruiting primary challengers for every Republican senator seeking reelection in 2018 except for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
McConnell and his network of outside groups, including the Senate Leadership Fund, are backing Heller. The race has already turned nasty. Tarkanian is demanding Heller vow to oppose McConnell as majority leader, while the Senate Leadership Fund is accusing Bannon of anti-Semitism and mocking Breitbart’s internet traffic.
President Trump figures to weigh heavily over the race. Eighty-five percent of those polled have a favorable view of the president. Eighty-six percent said they’d be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports the president’s agenda. So obviously the candidate who is seen as more pro-Trump is going to have an advantage.
