As of 10:15 p.m. ET, businessman John Brunner, former state treasurer Sarah Steelman and Rep. Todd Akin were all within five percentage points of one another, with 40% of precincts reporting.
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Going into Tuesday’s contest, Brunner, former manufacturing CEO and former Marine, had a fundraising advantage over his opponents, having raised $7.6 million this cycle, with a quarter-million coming from his own pocket.
Steelman, who lags far behind her competitors in terms of fund-raising, has gained national attention in recent weeks after receiving the coveted endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The 2008 vice presidential nominee trumpeted Steelman as a reformer candidate at a picnic on Friday.
"Sarah was a 'Reaganite' before 'Reaganite' was cool, and that's what Washington needs more of today," Palin said.
It's worth nothing that Palin has had a successful endorsement record in Senate GOP primaries this cycle. Each candidate she has supported–state treasurer Richard Mourdock in Indiana, incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch in Utah, former solicitor general Ted Cruz in Texas, and state Sen. Deb Fischer in Nebraska–has gone on to win a primary.
Steelman, who once served in the state senate, also has the backing of the Tea Party Express.
Akin, a six-term U.S. congressman, touts his social conservative values and has the support of 2008 presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He was one of the first members of Congress to join the Tea Party Caucus in 2010 and has easily won re-election in recent years.
While the lawmaker may fall behind in the polls, he has raised a notable $2.2 million this cycle, as of July 18.
A further indication of a tight race: Sen. McCaskill targeted all three GOP Senate hopefuls in attack ads last month. Republicans consider McCaskill, first elected in 2006, highly vulnerable in her re-election bid for a second term. In fact, the same Mason-Dixon poll showed the senator falling behind each of the three main GOP competitors in hypothetical match-ups among registered Missouri voters.
Conservative groups, including FreedomWorks and American Crossroads, have already poured money into the race against McCaskill. Crossroads especially went after the senator over a controversy last year. McCaskill, a former Missouri state auditor, admitted in March 2011 that she failed to pay nearly $300,000 in personal property taxes over the previous four years for the partial ownership she and her husband had in a private plane.
A vocal supporter of reform and transparency in the Senate, McCaskill described the failure to pay taxes as unintentional and vowed to sell the plane.
She also acknowledged that after a three-day trip through Missouri in May 2007, her Senate office improperly used taxpayer dollars for flights to two political events. When she admitted the transaction, McCaskill said her staff had already repaid the government for the trip. In total, McCaskill reimbursed the government for $88,000 for 89 flights.
The Democratic senator also made headlines this summer when she decided to skip her party's upcoming national convention in order to campaign at home.
"I've got a really hard election," McCaskill told CNN in June. "If you had a really hard election and it was after Labor Day would you go to North Carolina to a bunch of parties and glad-handing or would you stay home and work as hard as you know how to convince Missourians they should rehire you?"
McCaskill insisted she was not attempting to distance herself from the party. Two weeks later, Vice President Joe Biden attended a campaign fund-raiser for the senator, a former colleague of his in the Senate, and described her as a "strong, strong ally."
– CNN Senior Congressional Producer Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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