BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The campaign for Republican Congressman Chris Collins released its second ad Tuesday, this time focusing on single-payer health care.

"I'm sure their polling tells them, their focus groups, whatever research they've done says single-payer will not fly in this district. That's a negative," Canisius College Associate Professor of Political Science Kevin Hardwick said.

It's an issue that has come up in a number of congressional races across New York. Political analysts said the single-payer issue is a polarizing one, which has become a bit of a litmus test for progressive Democrats and may motivate voter turnout in some swing districts. However, they said in redder districts, like NY-27, it could do the opposite.

"We just see this pattern over and over again in an environment like we currently are existing where one party takes a stance, the other party has a great deal of pressure to go the other way with it," University at Buffalo Associate Professor of Political Science Jacob Neiheisel said.

Hardwick said he believes the general public is more receptive to proposals like Medicare for All than it was even a decade ago. He said branding is important for campaigns however.

"I mean if you call it single-payer and you call it Canadian or British or socialism, it's not going to sell because I think most people don't understand what single-payer is," he said.

Neiheisel said Collins’ Democratic challenger Nate McMurray, in particular, has to walk a fine line between appealing to his party and the voters in the district.

"A majority of Republicans are probably not going to like it and they're certainly not going to like it framed in terms of increasing their taxes or something else along those lines," he said.

McMurray meanwhile defended his stance on health care while arguing Collins has no plan of his own.