U.S. Senator Kay Hagan continues to hold a four-point lead over Republican challenger Thom Tillis, the speaker of the NC House.

According to a September survey by Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling, Hagan leads Tillis by 44/40 in her bid for re-election

Last month in the poll, she was ahead 42/38.

Some media outlets credit Hagan’s recent debate performance against Tillis for her steady lead, but Jensen said that things haven’t really changed much.

“Well, at least not in our polling, it wasn’t a game changer,” said Jensen. “We’re finding, really, a steady race compared to what we had a month ago. Kay Hagan was up by four points in August, and we find her up by four points in September.”

He noted that other recent polls show Hagan is actually improving over last month.

“Whether it was the debate or not, I don’t know,” said Jensen. “But we definitely see that pretty much every poll has Hagan up by at least three or four points now.”

One such poll by American Insights had Hagan up by nine points. Jensen said he’s sticking with the consensus, though.

Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh’s support has dropped from eight percent to five percent since last month.

Jensen said he’s not as sure as he was even a month ago that Haugh’s former supporters will break off significantly toward Tillis.

“What’s interesting is that as Haugh’s support has declined, it hasn’t really resulted in a gain for Tillis,” said Jensen.

According to PPP, Hagan’s approval numbers, while still negative, have improved since last month, She’s at 43/48 now, up from 40/50 in July.

Only 34 percent of voters view Tillis positively, while 48 percent have a negative opinion, according to PPP.