Poll indicates it is 'nearly impossible' for Democrats to flip the Senate

With November creeping ever closer, the Democrats' chances of flipping the Senate are looking dimmer and dimmer. A "brutal" new poll by Axios/SurveyMonkey shows that the party is on track to lose three seats in the midterm elections: Republican Rick Scott has a 3-point lead on Sen. Bill Nelson (D) of Florida, Kevin Cramer has a 5-point lead on Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D) of North Dakota, and Mike Braun has a 2-point lead on Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) of Indiana.
Democrats look likely to pick up two GOP seats, with Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema out-polling all three Arizona Republican candidates and Nevada's Jacky Rosen out-polling Sen. Dean Heller (R) by 3 points. Republicans look assured to hold their seat in Tennessee, where Marsha Blackburn has a 14-point lead on Democrat Phil Bredesen.
Still, that won't be enough to put Democrats over the edge — they would need to hold all 10 seats in Trump-friendly states, plus pick up an extra two. "It's looking nearly impossible for Democrats to take back the Senate," Axios concludes.
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The poll reached 12,677 total registered voters between June 11 and July 2. You can read the state-by-state margins of error here.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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