Poll: Pryor opens up lead on Cotton for Ark. Senate

WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., may be on track to keep his seat after all.

Pryor faces a strong challenge from Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, a Harvard Law graduate and retired Army captain who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, who as recently as February held a small edge in the polls.

But a new survey from NBC News/Marist, out Monday, shows the trend turning back in Pryor's favor, showing the two-term Democrat leading his challenger 51 percent to 40. Two other polls in the past month -- from NY Times/Kaiser and Opinion Research Associates -- also found Pryor holding a 10-point lead over his opponent.

That's increasingly good news for Pryor, who at one point trailed Cotton by as many as 5 points in a February Rasmussen Reports poll. The Arkansas Democrat looked like one of the most vulnerable seats heading into midterms, with a state that overwhelmingly believes the country is headed in the wrong direction and deeply disapproves of President Barack Obama's job performance.

NBC News-Marist Poll Arkansas May 2014