Poll: Dems have 2-point lead on generic ballot for control of Congress

Democrats hold a 2-point lead over Republicans when asked by registered voters which party that want to control Congress after November’s midterm elections, according to a poll released Thursday, a sharp decrease from previous iterations of the survey.

The new IBD/TIPP poll shows 45 percent of registered voters surveyed said they would prefer for Democrats to regain control of the House and Senate, compared to the 43 percent who want to see the GOP maintain leadership.

{mosads}The Democrats’ number is down from last month, when the party held a massive 11-point lead on the same question, where 50 percent favored Democratic control and 39 percent chose the GOP.

The poll also found that Republican support for the current GOP-controlled Congress has risen from 86 percent last month to a current 92 percent approval rating amid the controversy over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

“The Kavanaugh hearings galvanized Republicans who saw the proceedings as a ploy by the Democrats to slow the nomination process,” said Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, the firm which conducts the IBD/TIPP Poll. “What’s more, many Republicans thought that Kavanaugh’s reputation was being maligned by the Democratic Senators.”

The October IBD/TIPP survey also found that President Trump’s favorability rose slightly.

An estimated 38 percent of adult respondents have a favorable impression of Trump, compared to the 54 percent who responded unfavorably, up from 36 percent of respondents viewing him favorably and 55 percent viewing him unfavorably last month.

Despite approval for the current party in power, the IBD/TIPP poll found that Democrats are more enthusiastic about the upcoming election.

A vast majority of Democratic-registered voters polled — 83 percent — said they are very or extremely interested in midterms, compared to the 74 percent of Republican voters and 72 percent of independent voters.

The IBD/TIPP poll was conducted between Sept. 27 and Oct. 3 among 905 adults nationwide. The “generic ballot” question was conducted among 846 registered voters. The poll has a plus or minus 3.3 percentage point margin of error.