Despite his double-digit lead in the polls, Russ Feingold told reporters Monday that he expects his Senate race against Republican incumbent Ron Johnson will be a close one.
“I am not going to kid myself for one minute that this isn’t a tough fight, and I’m going to fight as tough as I know how,” the Democrat said after delivering remarks at the Wisconsin State Council of Machinists Conference in Madison.
According to the latest Marquette Law School poll released last week, the former senator is leading Johnson 49 percent to 37 percent. Those numbers have stayed consistent since November, when Feingold registered 49 percent to Johnson’s 38 percent.
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Feingold said he doesn’t put too much stock in the findings.
“This race will be much closer than the polls show,” he said. “I do not take those kinds of numbers seriously. I am working as hard as I’ve ever worked in my life, because so much is at stake.”
Feingold served 18 years in the Senate before Johnson unseated him in 2010.
During his remarks at the machinists conference, Feingold also called on Johnson to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an international trade deal involving the United States and 11 other countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.
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