Incumbent U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, enjoys a comfortable but not winning margin over Republican Nella Domenici in the closely watched race for Senate, a new poll found.
Polling by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, a polling and political strategy firm that conducts weekly tracking polls in the most contested states, surveyed 573 New Mexicans from Aug. 12-15 as a part of a larger group of voters asked about their preferences among candidates for president and Senate.
“In New Mexico’s Senate election, Democratic candidate Martin Heinrich leads the Republican candidate, Nella Domenici by six points (42% to 36%). Heinrich’s lead is unchanged from our previous Swing States poll, although both candidates see their share of the vote increase by two points from last week. Heinrich polls five points below Harris in the state, whereas Domenici polls five points below Trump,” according to the polling memo released publicly this week.
Fifteen percent of New Mexico voters still say they are undecided, while 7% say they either won’t vote or will vote for a third-party candidate.
A previous poll by Public Policy Polling conducted in June showed Heinrich leading by a similar margin, 47-40% but with only 11% undecided.
When asked about their preferences among presidential candidates, 47% of New Mexicans surveyed said they would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat, over former Republican President Donald Trump’s 41%. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., running as an independent, has 6% support.
While respondents in 8 of 10 states say they trusted Trump more on issues of policing and crime, the survey found that “pluralities of voters in Michigan (41%) and New Mexico (39%) trust Harris more than Trump on this issue.”
The survey was conducted between the Republican and Democratic Party conventions. The poll did not release margins of error for state-level results.