“REPUBLICAN” RACE GOING DOWN TO THE WIRE …
Two tax-and-spend “Republicans” remain locked in a dead heat as the special election to fill South Carolina’s vacant fifth congressional district seat heats up.
S.C. speaker pro tempore Tommy Pope and ex-lawmaker Ralph Norman – who finished in a virtual tie in the first round of GOP voting for this seat last week – remain tied, according to a poll released on Thursday by the Georgia-based Trafalgar Group.
The Trafalgar poll showed Norman receiving 45.75 percent of the vote in next Tuesday’s runoff election – with Pope drawing 45.32 percent. The rest of those surveyed – 8.93 percent – were undecided.
#sc05 #poll @RalphNorman lead with SRs remains but overall has slipped to statistical tie will surging @tommypopeSC https://t.co/iDQ0IX52Gw pic.twitter.com/XkkhSWkVgq
— The Trafalgar Group (@trafalgar_group) May 11, 2017
That’s about as close as it gets, people.
“The virtual dead heat these two candidates ended the primary with remains,” noted Trafalgar’s senior strategist Robert Cahaly, who was one of the only pollsters in America who correctly predicted Donald Trump‘s 2016 upset win (as well as Trump’s margin of victory in South Carolina).
According to Cahaly, “Norman continues to maintain a solid lead amongst senior voters who are the most historically reliable in South Carolina special election runoffs.”
Norman has also benefited from the lion’s share of “conservative” endorsements in this race, although as we’ve pointed out his record on fiscal issues is every bit as bad as Pope’s.
If not worse …
Norman and Pope are vying to fill the seat vacated back in February by Mick Mulvaney, who held it for a little over six years prior to being confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
That news broke exclusively on this website, by the way.
The winner of this May 16 election will face Republican … err, “Democrat” Archie Parnell and several third party candidates on June 20.
The fifth district (map) covers the northern central portion of South Carolina. It has been reliably Republican since it was redrawn prior to the 2012 elections – which is one reason Democrats had trouble getting top prospects (like S.C. Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell) to consider running for the seat.
(Banner via iStock)