Here are today's Senate and gubernatorial polls:
• AZ-Sen: Insights West: John McCain (R-inc): 53, Ann Kirkpatrick (D): 35 (37-33 Trump)
• CA-Sen: Insights West: Kamala Harris (D): 42, Loretta Sanchez (D): 28 (57-30 Clinton)
• NC-Sen: PPP (D): Richard Burr (R-inc): 41, Deborah Ross (D): 41 (Aug.: 46-43 Burr) (45-43 Trump)
• NC-Gov: PPP (D): Roy Cooper (D): 46, Pat McCrory (R-inc): 41 (Aug.: 43-42 Cooper)
• NV-Sen: Insights West: Joe Heck (R): 43, Catherine Cortez Masto (D): 39 (42-40 Trump)
• NV-Sen: Rasmussen: Heck: 44, Cortez Masto: 40 (July: 42-41 Heck) (42-39 Trump)
• WI-Sen: Marquette Law: Russ Feingold (D): 44, Ron Johnson (R-inc): 39, Phil Anderson (Lib): 7 (Aug.: 45-42-7 Feingold) (41-38 Clinton)
Insights West is a Canadian outfit that hadn't polled any U.S. elections this cycle until now, though they were pretty accurate in calling Alberta’s historic provincial elections last year. PPP’s new North Carolina poll, meanwhile, is pretty interesting: Even though a 1-point Clinton lead has turned into a 2-point Trump edge since the firm’s last survey, this poll managed to produce the best numbers PPP has ever seen for Cooper and Ross. In fact, in 17 polls going back to Feb. 2015, Cooper had never led by more than 3 points. The average margin from PPP over that timespan? An amazing 0 percent—that’s how close this race has always been. But with McCrory taking a renewed beating over HB2, that may have finally changed.
As for the Senate race, Ross had always trailed Burr in a dozen prior PPP surveys. She started the year 10 points behind but has steadily closed the gap and is now tied. Some other pollsters have shown her with a slight edge of late, and the HuffPo average has her down just 46-44, so this is looking like a real race.