Poll: Democrats expand lead on generic congressional ballot to 5 points

Democrats have expanded their lead over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot to 5 percentage points as the midterm campaign enters its final month, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The Economist/YouGov poll showed that 45 percent of voters said they support the Democratic candidate in their congressional district, while 40 percent said they would vote for the Republican candidate.

The poll showed Democrats with a slightly larger lead than an Economist/YouGov survey from a month ago, when the GOP trailed by just 2 percentage points.

{mosads}In Wednesday’s poll, Democrats lead among women voters by a 47 to 35 percent margin, while men lean toward voting for the GOP, 45 to 44 percent.

Independent voters also favor the GOP candidates, 38 to 31 percent, according to the new poll.

Forty-seven percent of white voters favor Republican candidates, compared to 39 percent who said they would support the Democratic candidate, pollsters found.

Democrats lead among black voters, 71 to 14 percent, and among Hispanic voters, 50 to 24 percent, according to the poll.

The poll surveyed 1,227 registered voters from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. The margin of error in the poll is 2.9 percentage points.

The poll hews closely to a RealClearPolitics average of generic ballot polls, which shows Democrats with a roughly 7-point lead.

Republicans are attempting to stave off a Democratic effort to retake control of the House and Senate in November. Democrats need to pick up 23 seats in the House to reclaim the majority, and must gain two seats in the Senate to secure a majority there.