By Daniel Villarreal
NW - Writer
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A new poll shows Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham tied against his Democratic challenger Jamie Harrison.
The poll comes just weeks after Graham refused to take a COVID-19 at Harrison's request before their second debate. The two ended up holding separate televised interviews instead of debating one another.
The progressive think tank, Data for Progress, polled 1,196 likely voters in South Carolina using text messaging and web panel respondents, asking each who they would vote for if the election were held tomorrow.
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Both Graham and Harrison got an even split of 46 percent of all likely voters who pledged their support. However, the numbers divided differently when it came to early voters and those who had not yet voted.
Among the 31 percent of those who had already voted, 57 percent chose Harrison and 40 chose Graham. Among the 69 percent who hadn't already voted, 48 percent preferred Graham and 39 percent preferred Harrison.
The poll also asked South Carolina voters about their support for Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Among those who had already voted, 58 percent supported Biden and 40 supported Trump. Among those who hadn't already voted, 53 percent said they preferred Trump and 37 percent said they preferred Biden.
The race between Graham and Harrison is one of the tighter races that will determine party control of the Senate. Polls over the last three months have shown the two Senate candidates tied or one leading the other by only about 2 percentage points, according to the poll analysis site FiveThirtyEight.
A Democrat hasn't won a Senate seat for South Carolina since 1998, and state support for Trump remains strong, with polls showing him beating Democratic challenger Joe Biden by 2 to 10 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight.
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Data for Progress' new poll arrives two weeks after a public dispute between Harrison and Graham regarding COVID-19 testing.
On October 8, Harrison said he would refuse to debate Graham in person on October 9 unless Graham took a COVID-19 test. Graham had been at an October 1 Senate Judiciary hearing with Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee one day before Lee tested positive for COVID-19.
Graham's campaign said that he had taken a COVID-19 test after the Senate hearing and that "the Attending Physician of the U.S. Congress both counseled him that CDC guidelines did not require a quarantine or additional testing, so he was cleared to return to normal activities," the campaign said in a statement.
Harrison then refused to debate Graham in person, with both candidate's campaigns blaming one another for the debate's cancellation.
Newsweek contacted Harrison for comment.
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