The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that Democrat Chad Taylor’s name should not appear on the November ballot, says Roll Call. “The ruling is a boon for independent candidate Greg Orman, who already had a legitimate chance to oust Republican Sen Pat Roberts. His odds undoubtedly improved by Taylor’s removal from the ballot, since Taylor can no longer take up any anti-Roberts votes,” it said. Polls show Taylor with up to 10 percent of the vote.
In Iowa, “(t)he race is tight,” says FiveThirtyEight. Its election model gives Republican nominee Joni Ernst a 53 percent chance of winning. Ernst led Democrat Bruce Braley, 48-42, in a newly released Quinnipiac University poll, her biggest lead yet. FiveThirtyEight says Iowa is moving closer to a toss-up race. There have been five polls in Iowa this month. Braley was the leader in three of them and tied Ernst in one.
Pollster’s tracking model puts Ernst ahead by 1 point, 46-45, in Iowa and it has Roberts ahead by a hair, 40-39, against Orman in Kansas with Democrat Chad Taylor, who has dropped out of the race, with 10 percent. It’s also a 1-point race in Arkansas, with Republican Tom Cotton 45-44 over Democrat Mark Pryor, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture.