Democrats’ generic midterm voting lead shrinking: poll

A new poll found Democrats’ lead over Republicans in a general congressional vote has tripled since August, another sign of the GOP’s momentum advantage, less than a week before Election Day.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll has charted the Democratic Party’s downward spiral since August, when the Democrats led the general congressional vote by 6 points. In late September, the same poll saw the Democrats’ lead slip to 4 points. And now, in the last Yahoo News/YouGov poll ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, the Democrats’ lead has shrunk to 2 points.

The poll released Thursday found that of 1,641 registered voters, 46% say they will vote Democrat and 44% say they will vote Republican. It’s effectively a tie, as the poll’s margin of error is 2.7 percentage points.

Of those who have already voted or say they will “definitely vote” on Election Day, 49% said they would vote for a Democrat and 47% said they would vote for a Republican.

The poll also found that voter enthusiasm favors Republicans, although more early voters said they voted for Democrats.

Among registered Democratic voters, 74% have either already voted or say they will “definitely” vote. The number is 7 points higher for registered Republicans, with 81% saying they have already voted or will definitely vote.

Other recent polls have also shown that Republicans are overtaking and overtaking Democrats in the general congressional vote.

A Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday showed Republicans leading by 2 points, and a Suffolk University-USA Today poll last week showed the GOP was up 4 points.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll also measured which issue voters care about most, and like numerous other polls, inflation was named the top issue by 38% of voters.

Also a spelling problem for Democrats, a full 63% of voters said inflation was “getting worse,” and just 17% said it was “getting better.” Republicans also beat Democrats by a wide margin, 43% to 34%, on which party would do a “better job” on inflation.

The survey was conducted from October 27th to 31st.