Dems retake wide lead over Republicans ahead of midterm elections: poll

Democrats have retaken a clear advantage over Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections on a generic House ballot, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday.

In the poll, which surveyed registered voters, Democrats held a 14-point advantage, 52 percent to 38 percent, for control of the House this fall over Republicans, a jump from a 4-point lead in the same poll in April and similar to results seen in the beginning of 2018.

{mosads}A similar Post/ABC poll taken before the 2014 midterms, when voters handed control of the Senate to Republicans, showed the GOP with a 10-point lead heading into Election Day.

Democratic voters are currently fired up to vote in the midterms in a way not usually seen, pollsters found, pointing to 63 percent of Democrats and Democratic-aligned voters surveyed who said they did not vote in 2014’s midterms but will vote this time around.

Democratic-leaning voters are also more likely to turn out to the polls in general this November, according to the survey, which found that 80 percent of registered Democrats in the sample plan to vote compared to 72 percent of registered Republicans.

Votes in November are likely to be tied heavily to President Trump and voters’ opinion of his job performance, the poll also found, adding that 8 out of 10 people surveyed who disapprove of Trump say they will vote for Democrats, while the same percentage of Trump’s supporters say they would vote for the Republican candidate.

Despite the administration’s work on the economy, the president himself remains the dividing factor. Nearly half of voters optimistic about economic growth say they disapprove of Trump’s performance, the Post notes, and still plan to vote against him.

The Washington Post poll was conducted between Aug. 26-28 and surveyed 879 registered voters. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.