McConnell grabs 42 percent in the latest poll, while Grimes gets 46 percent. | AP Photos Poll: McConnell trails Grimes by 4

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell trails his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, by 4 points in a new poll published Thursday night by Kentucky’s largest newspaper.

The survey also found President Barack Obama to be slightly more popular than the longtime incumbent senator in the red state.


The Louisville Courier-Journal poll, a robo-poll conducted by SurveyUSA, gave McConnell 42 percent to Grimes’ 46 percent, adding to Democrats’ hopes of a competitive race.

( On the Ground: POLITICO reporters take you inside 2014's biggest races)

The poll also found that only 27 percent of registered voters view the Republican incumbent favorably. Fifty percent view him unfavorably.

According to the paper, most of the poll questions used a sample of 1,082 registered voters in Kentucky and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The survey was conducted Jan. 30 through Feb. 4.

The poll found that the president’s approval rating is 34 percent in the Bluegrass State, compared to 32 percent who approve of McConnell’s performance.

( QUIZ: Do you know Alison Lundergan Grimes?)

McConnell leads his Republican primary challenger, Matt Bevin, by 26 points, 55 percent to 29 percent, in the poll. The Courier-Journal attributed some of McConnell’s weakness to conservative frustration, noting that these voters would come home after a primary victory.

Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state, remains largely undefined: 27 percent view her unfavorably; 26 percent view her favorably; 29 percent have a neutral opinion; and 18 percent had no opinion.

“We’re very comfortable about where this race stands and extremely confident that Senator McConnell will earn the votes of Kentuckians this fall,” McConnell spokeswoman Allison Moore said. “The contrast between Mitch McConnell’s conservative accomplishments for Kentucky and Alison Lundergan Grimes’s alliance with President Obama’s agenda of Obamacare and the war on coal will become very clear to everyone over the next nine months.”