Despite the smattering of support he’s gathered in the last week, Rep. Todd Akin still lagged 6 points behind Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill in two polls released Wednesday.
Mrs. McCaskill tweeted Wednesday afternoon that she raised $5.8 million during the third quarter, more than doubling what she brought in from April to June this year.
Public Policy Polling showed Mrs. McCaskill leading Mr. Akin 46 percent to 40 percent, while a Rasmussen poll showed her ahead by 51 to 45, with five more weeks to go before the November election.
It was also the first time a Rasmussen poll has shown Mrs. McCaskill with more than 50 percent support, indicating she could be making gains in personal likeability. While she has consistently led Mr. Akin in polls since his notorious comments about rape in August, she still hovered below the halfway point last month — a troubling place for an incumbent.
The Missouri Senate race is still considered to be in play for Republicans, although their chances of seizing the seat from Mrs. McCaskill diminished after Mr. Akin said that victims of “legitimate rape” are unlikely to conceive.
Mr. Akin had been shunned by the national Republican party, although a prominent political action committee that works to elect conservatives to the Senate announced last week that it would come to his aid.
