The Senate race remains a dead heat, with Joe Sestak holding onto the boost he got from his Democratic primary win over Arlen Specter, Quinnipiac reports after its latest July 6-11 survey of 1,367 Pennsylvania voters (MoE +/- 2.7 percentage points):

Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey are locked in a 43 – 43 percent tie in their race for the U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Rep. Sestak had 40 percent to Toomey’s 42 percent in a May 13 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University and trailed Toomey 42 – 34 percent in an April 8 survey.

In today’s results, Democrats back Sestak 77 – 11 percent while Republicans go with Toomey 82 – 11 percent.  Independent voters back Toomey 44 – 35 percent, compared to 46 – 30 percent May 13.

Toomey, a former congressman, is viewed favorably by 35 percent of voters and unfavorably by 13 percent, while 51 percent don’t know enough about him to form an opinion.  

Sestak gets a 31 – 20 percent favorability rating, while 47 percent haven’t heard enough about him to form an opinion.

“Congressman Joe Sestak, a decided underdog who knocked off U.S. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary, has now closed an 8-point gap in the last three months to tie Pat Toomey,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“But the Senate race remains wide open, since at this point about half of the voters don’t know enough about either candidate to form an opinion.