Majority say they want GOP in control of Senate: poll

A majority of voters say they want Republicans to remain in control of the Senate in the new year after the Georgia runoff races, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.

Fifty-six percent of voters said they want a divided government with Republicans in control of the upper chamber, according to data released exclusively to The Hill.

Forty-four percent of voters said they wanted Democrats to control the Senate.

“As of now, the voters want divided government and their votes for the Senate and House indicate that as well,” said Harvard CAPS-Harris polling director Mark Penn. “This is a strong headwind for Democrats in the special election though [President] Trump’s continued failure to concede could muddy the waters here.”

The poll comes weeks after both Georgia Senate races headed to runoffs after all four candidates failed to reach the 50 percent threshold in the state needed to win an election.

Incumbent Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) garnered 86,000 more votes than his Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, while the other Democratic candidate, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, benefited from the fact that two Republicans — Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins — were on the ballot in his race, dividing the GOP vote.

The races, which are set to take place Jan. 5, will determine the outcome of the Senate. The majority will have a major effect on President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda for the next two years.

Democrats are set to have 48 seats in January. If they win both of the Georgia Senate seats, they would effectively have control of the Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tie breaking vote.

Republicans decreased Democrats’ chances of winning back the upper chamber earlier this month after many predicted a blue wave.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll of 2,205 registered voters was conducted between Nov. 17 and 19. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll.

Full poll results will be posted online later this week. The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.