Democrats maintain advantage on eve of midterms: Poll

Washington, Nov 6 (IANS) One day before the crucial US midterms elections, Democrats continued to hold a double-digit lead over Republicans in a generic congressional ballot among likely voters, according to a new CNN Poll.

The party’s 55 per cent to 42 per cent advantage in the new poll mirrors their lead in early October, the poll released on Monday showed.

That’s a slimmer edge than the party held in CNN’s final poll before the 2006 midterm elections and similar to the Republicans’ 10-point advantage just before the 2010 midterms.

According to the poll, Democrats benefitted from a massive gender gap that has persisted throughout the fall — women favoured Democrats 62 per cent to 35 per cent, while men were about evenly divided, 49 per cent backed the Republican, while 48 per cent supported the Democrat in their district.

A wide lead among political independents — 53 per cent for the Democrat to 39 per cent for the Republican — and strong support from African American and Latino voters — 88 per cent of black voters and 66 per cent of Latino voters favoured the Democrats.

About seven in 10 likely voters said that when they cast a ballot on Tuesday, they would be sending a message about President Donald Trump, and more often than not, the message those voters want to send is one of opposition, the CNN poll said.

Overall, 42 per cent of likely voters said their vote would be to express opposition to the President, while 28 per cent said it would be to support him.

Trump’s approval rating in the poll stood at 39 per cent overall, with 55 per cent disapproving, slightly worse than in early October, when 41 per cent approved of his performance and 52 per cent disapproved.

That is the worst pre-election approval rating for any President approaching their first midterm election in polling dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower (January 1953 – January 1961).

Among likely voters, a majority, 52 per cent said they strongly disapproved of the way Trump was handling his job while 35 per cent said they strongly approved of his work, and just 11 per cent of those likely to vote on Tuesday said they did not have strong views on the President, the poll said.

Meanwhile, about half of likely voters said that if Democrats won control of Congress, the country would be better off (48 per cent), while about a third said it would be worse off (35 per cent).

The CNN Poll was conducted from November 1 through 3 among a random national sample of 1,518 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer.

The midterm polls for the House of Representatives and the Senate will be held across the US on Tuesday. At least 2 million people have also cast their ballots in early voting.