Bill Nelson in Dead Heat With Connie Mack in New Poll

A poll released on Tuesday finds that Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson will face a stiff challenge to win a third term in November.

The poll of likely Florida voters from Rasmussen Reports shows that Nelson, who has been on the public stage for four decades, fails to break 50 percent against any of the three leading Republican candidates and is tied with U.S. Rep. Connie Mack whose father held the seat for two terms before Nelson.

When matched against Mack, who leads polls of the Republican primary field, Nelson takes 41 percent and so does his Republican challenger. Nelson does better against two other Republican candidates. The Democrat incumbent takes 43 percent when matched up against retired Army officer and businessman Mike McCalister who takes 37 percent. Nelson does best when matched against former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux. In that scenario, Nelson takes 45 percent while LeMieux trails with 35 percent.

The Rasmussen poll of 500 likely Florida voters was taken on Feb. 13 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.