Missouri Senate race not strange this time, just competitive

Recent polls show Blunt, 66, a longtime member of Congress, with a slim lead, but it's well within the polling margin of error, making the contest a virtual toss-up.

In 2012, Sen. Claire McCaskill — once considered one of the chamber's most vulnerable Democratic incumbents — easily won re-election after Republican challenger Todd Akin commented on a St. Louis TV talk show that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy from what he called "legitimate rape."

Both sides are spending millions of dollars on TV ads, bolstered by millions more from their national senatorial committees as well as political action committees and other outside groups.

Attack ads often try to tie the candidates to the tops of their tickets — Blunt to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, and Kander to Democrat Hillary Clinton.