SRA Poll shows ND Senate race numbers, reaction to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh case

In June, NBC North Dakota News teamed up with Mason-Dixon, now we've teamed up with Strategic Research Associates (SRA) to conduct a survey on certain issues and candidates involved in the upcoming midterm election.

We start out with the latest numbers for the race for Senate. According to SRA, it surveyed 650 likely voters last month. And, Republican challenger Rep. Kevin Cramer leads incumbent Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp by 10 percentage points; 51 percent to 41 percent. Eight percent have yet to make up their mind.

Not comparing our information from the last poll done in June with Mason-Dixon to the one done last month with SRA, Cramer is still is still in the lead, but by a closer margin: 48 percent to 44 percent.

Obviously a hot topic lately is the pending confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Sixty percent of voters in North Dakota support Kavanaugh with 27 percent expressing opposition. The poll was conducted during the recent disclosure that Kavanaugh may have engaged in sexual misconduct while in high school and college, but before the Sept. 27 testimony by Kavanaugh and one of his accusers before the Senate Judiciary Committtee.

And in national issues, the SRA poll say an overwhelmingly that 21 percent of North Dakota voters have Kavanaugh as their biggest concern.

Followed by health care at 13 percent, 12 percent think immigration-border security. The Economy and jobs at 10 percent, National security at 9 percent. taxes at 8 percent, trade and tariffs and Russian collusion at 7 percent each. Social issues at 6 percent. Gun Control and none round out the list each at 4 percent.