Another poll, another survey showing Democratic candidate John Fetterman on top in the chase for the U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

In a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday, Fetterman pulled in 48 percent of the respondents who were definitely or probably going to vote for the lieutenant governor, while Republican nominee Mehmet Oz garnered 43 percent.

According to the survey, Fetterman is seen as understanding the concerns of ordinary Pennsylvanians more than Oz and also maintains an overall advantage on being trusted more to handle key issues, including those prioritized by independents and Republicans.

In terms of net favorability, Fetterman is a plus-4 (48-44) which is similar to his rating in a Monmouth poll from three weeks ago. Oz’s numbers continue to be negative at minus-17 (36-53) which is also similar to the rating from the last survey. Also, slightly more Pennsylvania voters continue to say they definitely will not vote for Oz (46%) than completely rule out Fetterman (40%).

“Fetterman maintains an edge as his support is starting to solidify. Oz’s higher negatives are driven in large part by the sense that that he is out of touch with most Pennsylvanians,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

A majority of Pennsylvania voters say Fetterman understands the day-to-day concerns of people like them either a great deal (34%) or some (23%). Only 4 in 10 say the same about Oz (15% great deal and 24% some).

The poll also finds Fetterman holds the advantage on key issues, as 45 percent of voters say they trust the Democrat more on jobs, the economy, and cost of living while 36% trust Oz. Last month, Fetterman had a 41% to 36% advantage over his opponent on this issue. Fetterman also has an advantage when it comes to handling crime – 45% trust him more on this issue to 38% for Oz. The widest gap is on the issue of abortion, where 48% trust Fetterman and just 29% trust Oz.

“The economy is an issue that has generally helped Republicans in national polling, but Oz has not been able to capitalize on it,” said Murray.

The poll also finds that four percent of registered voters say they definitely will vote for one of the third party candidates running for U.S. Senate this year, and 13% say they will probably support one of these candidates. Given past elections, that level of support is unlikely to happen and most of these voters will either vote for one of the two major party nominees or stay home. Among this group of potential third party supporters, similar numbers say they could vote for Oz (37%) or Fetterman (34%).

In the PoliticsPA polling average, Fetterman has a 4.1 percentage point advantage over Oz in the five most recent U.S. Senate surveys with a still large percentage (7.4) of undecideds waiting to make a call.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from September 29 to October 3, 2022 with 610 Pennsylvania registered voters. The question results in this release have a margin of error of +/- 4.8 percentage points for the full sample. The poll was conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute in West Long Branch, NJ.