The race for U.S. Senate is shaping up to be an incredibly close one in Tennessee according to the latest NBC News poll.
Like the April 2018 survey which asked identical questions in most aspects, the NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll was conducted online among a sample of 1,867 adults in Tennessee with 1,609 being registered voters. In total, it polled 10,113 adults across the nation from a period between Sept. 9 to Sept. 24, 2018.
The poll gauged responses on relevant topics ahead of the 2018 Midterms, this time asking those polled who they intend to vote for in the upcoming November elections.
Tennesseans on Midterm Elections
If the 2018 midterm elections were held today, it's uncertain who'd Tennessee would vote into office to fill Senator Bob Corker's seat.
Both Republican Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Phil Bredesen were in a dead heat when it came to the NBC News poll, each commanding the vote of 42 percent of respondents. Roughly 15 percent said they were undecided.
When it came to who'd they vote in as Tennessee's next governor, the preference was far more clear. Republican Bill Lee commanded the poll with 46 percent of respondents compared to 35 percent for Democrat Karl Dean.
Overall, 40 percent of Tennesseans polled said they'd generally vote for a Democratic Party candidate if the Nov. 2018 election for Congress were held today in their district, with 50 percent saying they'd vote Republican. Comparatively, 49 percent of those polled across the U.S. said they'd vote Democrat, while 42 percent said they'd vote Republican.
When it came to the issues that mattered the most right now, Tennesseans said the economy and healthcare were their two greatest concerns by a wide margin. Immigration was the third-highest response, followed by the environment, education and terrorism.
The responses were generally the same across the country with jobs and the economy leading the way, followed by health care. Below is the breakdown of the national percentages:
When it came to what the top priority should be for Tennessee state government, jobs and healthcare also led the way. However, education and infrastructure were notably higher when it came to state priorities, with immigration coming in last among the big ticket issues.
Tennesseans on State Government
Overall, Tennesseans a wide majority of Tennesseans generally approve of how our state is being run.
When asked if they approved of how Governor Bill Haslam has been handling his job, 67 percent of Tennesseans approved -- with a 51-percent majority saying they 'Somewhat approve.'
When it came to the State Legislature, fewer approved of how they were doing their job with 57 percent overall approving, with 50 percent of those saying they 'Somewhat approved' rather than 'Strongly approved'
When asked how they'd rate the Tennessee economy, 78 percent rated positively with 57 percent saying 'fairly good' and 21 percent saying 'very good.' Tennessee was significantly more optimistic than the rest of the nation on this topic -- with 66 percent of people feeling positive about the state of their state's economy.
Overall, Tennesseans were still somewhat wary with how the state had been handling road and infrastructure upkeep, though a 56 percent majority still approved of how it was being handled.
Tennesseans haven't changed their opinions much on the topic of raising taxes, though it still will come to a surprise to some the majority of Tennesseans were in favor of raising taxes -- so long as the reason is to fund education (55 percent in favor) or roads and bridge repairs (56 percent in favor).
Compared to the rest of the nation, Tennesseans were a little less likely than other Americans to approve when it came to raising taxes for public schools and infrastructure needs.
Generally, Tennesseans were still wary of state and federal government at large -- though much more trusting of state officials over federal officials. A majority said they only trust the federal government to do what's right 'some of the time' or 'almost never.' Meanwhile, a majority said they said they trusted the state government 'about half the time' or 'some of the time.'
Tennesseans were also specifically asked about two topics: race relations and Confederate monuments.
When asked if race relations were getting better or worse, 50 percent of Tennesseans said it was 'staying about the same.' 33 percent said it was getting worse, and 16 percent said it was getting better.
On the topic of removing Confederate monuments in public places, a 51 percent majority of Tennesseans strongly opposed to removing them. 20 percent strongly supported it, with 11 percent somewhat in support and 18 percent somewhat in opposition to removing monuments. These numbers were relatively the same compared to April 2018.
Approval of President Trump
Approval of the way President Donald Trump is handling his job as president remains relatively unchanged for Tennessee compared to the previous April 2018 poll.
53 percent of Tennesseans polled approved of how President Trump is handling the job, with 46 percent disapproving. Overall, 36 percent of those polled strongly approved and 39 percent strongly disapproved. Tennessee's approval numbers were slightly down from 56 percent approving in April, and generally mirrored the rest of the Southeast region's responses.
Tennessee and the Southeast held an above-average approval compared to the overall U.S. assessment of the president. 45 percent of registered American voters polled approved, and 54 percent disapproved. That's slightly higher than the April 2018 poll where 43 percent of those polled nationwide approved:
Strong Dissatisfaction of Capitol Hill
While President Trump saw a small bump in his national approval, legislative leaders in Congress continue to see their approval hover on the low end of the spectrum.
Only 25 percent of national respondents approved of the way the U.S. Congress was handling its job as a whole, with 74 percent of the nation disapproving. Of those who disapproved, 44 percent strongly disapproved and 30 percent somewhat disapproved.
Nationally, 27 percent of people said they 'almost never' trust the federal government to do what is right, with 33 percent saying they trust only some of the time, 25 percent saying they trust half of the time, and 12 percent saying they trust most of the time.
The NBC News|SurveyMonkey polls were conducted September 9-24, 2018, among a national sample of 8,898 registered voters (+/- 1.4), a regional sample of 2,655 registered voters who live in AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX and VA (+/- 2.8), a sample of 985 registered voters who live in MS (+/-4.3), a sample of 1,254 registered voters who live in AL (+/-3.8), a sample of 1,955 registered voters who live in GA (+/-3.0), and a sample of 1,609 registered voters who live in TN (+/-3.3). Respondents for this nonprobability survey were selected from the nearly three million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day.