Alabama Democrat Doug Jones is running just a few points behind his potential Republican opponents for a Senate seat in the deep-red state, according to a new poll.

The poll from Emerson College finds former Alabama state Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore leading Sen. Luther Strange Luther Johnson StrangeSessions hits back at Trump days ahead of Alabama Senate runoff The biggest political upsets of the decade State 'certificate of need' laws need to go MORE (R-Ala.) by a 14-point margin ahead of the GOP's special election primary runoff on Sept. 26.

But both Republicans would hold only a slim advantage over Jones, according to the poll — Moore leads Jones by 4 percentage points, while Strange leads him by 3 points.

The poll is a surprisingly strong result for Jones, who was expected to have no chance in the December general election for the rest of Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE's Senate term. Alabama voters traditionally back Republicans in statewide elections, with President Trump winning the state by nearly 30 percentage points in 2016.

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Jones's improved showing appears to come from deep divisions in the state GOP, which has been bruised by a tough primary fight between Moore and Strange. One-quarter of Moore's primary voters said they'd rather vote for the Democrat than Strange, while 31 percent of Strange's voters said they'd pick the Democrat over their primary rival.

Before either Republican has the chance can take on Jones, a former federal prosecutor, they have to make it through the runoff later this month. Strange and Moore moved onto a runoff after no candidate won the majority of the vote in the August primary.

Trump has endorsed Strange, who was appointed to the seat after Sessions was appointed to the Cabinet. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMomentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Trump expects to nominate woman to replace Ginsburg next week Video of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral MORE (R-Ky.) and his deep-pocketed allies have blanketed the state with ads on Strange's behalf, but he's consistently trailed Moore in polling on the runoff.

The new Emerson poll gives Democrats new hope that they can take the seat, or at least force Republicans to spend money defending what was expected to be a safe seat.

Emerson polled 416 likely voters between Sept. 8 and Sept. 9, and the poll has a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points.