By John Celock
Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence could find himself handing the Indiana governor’s mansion over to a Democrat, a new poll showed Monday.
A Monmouth University Poll released Monday shows that Democrat John Gregg, a former state House Speaker, leads Republican Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb 48 percent to 42 percent in the governor’s race. Gregg has been leading polls for several weeks but the poll shows Holcomb narrowing Gregg’s 50 percent to 38 percent lead in a poll from earlier this month. Pence opted out of the governor’s race in order to accept Donald Trump’s invitation to run for vice president.
Gregg is in his second bid for the governorship, having narrowly lost the 2012 race to Pence. Holcomb, a former state Republican Party chairman, had entered the race for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat last year but dropped out of that race at the beginning of 2016. Pence tapped Holcomb to succeed former Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann (R) in March. Holcomb then took over Pence’s place at the top of the GOP gubernatorial ticket in August.