New Polls Show Dems Are Losing Their Edge In The Midterms
We expected the Democratic bubble to burst but it’s happening way sooner than we expected. The leader-less party has struggled to keep a clear message and prove to voters that they’re not the out of touch talking heads we all know them to be.
According to News Week, Democrats hyping a sweeping blue wave on Capitol Hill come November may have to temper expectations after new polling showed the party beginning to lose its midterm advantage.
For the first time in this election cycle, a Reuters poll this week gave the GOP a 1.4 percentage-point lead over Democrats on a generic ballot. When asked if the midterm elections were to be held that day—Reuters conducted the poll on May 17—38.1 percent of respondents said they would vote for the Republican candidate in their district, as opposed to the 36.7 percent who said they’d cast their ballot for the Democratic one. Just over 15 percent of respondents said they “don’t know” which party they would favor, or refused to answer the question.
As Reported By Dan Balz and Scott Clement With The Washington Post:
Democrats hold an advantage ahead of the midterm elections, but a Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that edge has narrowed since January, a signal to party leaders and strategists that they could be premature in anticipating a huge wave of victories in November.
The poll finds that the gap between support for Democratic vs. Republican House candidates has dropped by more than half since the beginning of the year. At the same time, there has been a slight increase in President Trump’s approval rating, although it remains low. Measures of partisan enthusiasm paint a more mixed picture of the electorate in comparison with signs of Democratic intensity displayed in many recent special elections.