New poll suggests Republicans take House control after midterms

The latest CBS News-YouGov polling suggests that voters would prefer Republicans to take control of the House after the November midterms.

The Battleground Tracker, which estimates how many seats each party is predicted to win in the House of Representatives, showed that Republicans had stabilized their lead at 224 seats, while Democrats held 211. However, the GOP lead in the model had diminished in the past two months.

The latest polling found that 65 percent of voters said they believe the economy is getting worse, with 20 percent saying it is staying the same and 15 percent saying it is getting better. Voters also showed concern about rising gas prices, with 63 percent saying prices are going up, a stark contrast to the 16 percent who said the same in August.

Pollsters suggested that the culmination of economic inflation and gas prices pushed many voters who prioritize the economy toward Republicans, though the party has not been able to grow that voter group.

Meanwhile, Democrats’ primary voter group has been those who prioritize abortion, a group that also has not grown for the party.

While a majority of voters blame inflation on supply and manufacturing issues (63 percent) as well as international factors (58 percent), 47 percent place blame on democratic policies. Moreover, 48 percent of voters said that democratic policies have harmed the economy, while 29 percent say they have helped the economy.

In contrast, 42 percent of voters said that Republican policies would help the economy, while 33 say it would harm it.

As for the Biden administration’s efforts to curb inflation, 68 percent of voters said it could be doing more, while 32 percent say it is doing all it can.

Inflation escalated again in September, with prices rising 0.4 percent, marking the second straight month of accelerating inflation. The annual inflation rate dropped slightly to 8.2 percent but remained near levels not seen since the 1980s.

The survey of 2,068 registered voters was conducted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14. The margin of error for the poll is 2.4 percentage points.