A new Democratic poll shows that House Republicans could face trouble on Election Day regardless of whether they try to distance themselves from their party’s presidential nominee.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a poll on Tuesday indicating that any moves by Republicans in the last few days to reject GOP nominee Donald Trump may be too little, too late.
Overall, the nationwide survey — from after video emerged from 2005 of Trump bragging about groping and kissing women without their consent — conducted by Global Strategy Group, a Democratic-affiliated polling firm, for the DCCC found that a generic Democratic candidate beats a Republican one by 7 points, 49 percent to 42 percent.
{mosads}That finding matches with a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll out on Monday showing that Democrats had a 7-point edge on the question of which party should control Congress, up from 3 points last month.
It’s the latest finding that’s making Republicans fret about keeping their majorities in the House and Senate amid a potential Trump free-fall.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) informed lawmakers on Monday that he would no longer try to defend Trump and plans to focus entirely on mitigating losses in his House GOP conference.
Leaders told rank-and-file Republicans to make whatever decision best fits their districts in whether or not to back away from Trump. The flow of defections has waned in the last few days after dozens of GOP lawmakers rescinded their endorsements of Trump over the weekend.
The survey conducted for the DCCC tested the generic Democratic candidate against three types of Republicans.
A Democrat’s margin against a Republican “who continues to endorse Donald Trump” increased to a 12-point advantage.
But it didn’t seem to help if a Republican vowed not to vote for Trump.
A generic Democratic candidate also held a 12-point margin against a Republican candidate “who had supported Trump previously, but just withdrew their support.”
Lastly, a Republican “who never formally endorsed Donald Trump and now says they won’t vote for him” didn’t perform much better: such a candidate still lost to the Democratic candidate by 10 points.
The survey further found that 61 percent of voters think congressional Republicans “lack character and integrity” and are only distancing themselves from Trump now “because it’s politically popular to do so.”
“Voters see this for what it is: a failure of the Republican Party to stand up to Trump’s hateful campaign and ugly attacks during this entire election. Any desperate attempt to run from Trump now will be viewed for exactly what it is — a political move that comes too little, too late — and voters simply aren’t buying it,” DCCC Executive Director Kelly Ward said in a statement.
The survey was conducted immediately after the second presidential debate of 2016 on Sunday among 797 likely voters nationwide. It did not list a margin of error.