CNN’s chief data analyst has made a bold prediction about a race both parties view as a must-win.
Harry Enten says he would “rather be Troy Jackson at this point than Susan Collins” in the Maine Senate race, saying that President Donald Trump’s atrocious approval rating gives Jackson, the Democrat, an edge.
“If Donald Trump’s approval rating is what the polls suggest it is, I definitely would rather be Troy Jackson at this point than Susan Collins,” he said.
However, Enten notes that Sen. Collins, who has been in office for three decades, has previously defied grim polling figures.
“I kind of put Maine in kind of a separate camp if only because Susan Collins has defied polling before and she has been the senator now there for 30 years,” Enten tells The Bulwark.
A Marist University poll conducted last week found that Collins and Jackson are within two points of each other. It found that 49 percent of likely voters in Maine support Jackson, while 47 percent back Collins.
Enten has long sounded the alarm on Trump’s plummeting approval rating, which he previously described as “laughably bad.”
Earlier this month, Enten highlighted a Pew Research Center poll that showed Trump’s net approval rating was a staggering 38 points underwater just ahead of the midterms.
“No president I’ve ever seen is in a worse position before a midterm election than President Trump,” he said then. “You go all the way back. You go back to Harry S. Truman, FDR. At this point before a midterm, ever, ever, ever... the worst I’ve ever seen is Donald John Trump, 38 points underwater.”
