ABC Poll: Republicans Up 21 Points on Dems in Battleground Districts
By: Charlie McCarthy
September 26, 2022: Republicans hold a 21-point lead in battleground House districts on a generic congressional ballot as the party seeks to regain control of the chamber in November's midterms, a new poll found.
Related Article: Newest ABC News/Wash Post poll on Midterms could have real meaning (by Sharyl Attkisson
Among people living in congressional districts that are rated as at least somewhat competitive by ABC's FiveThirtyEight, registered voters favor GOP candidates 55% to 34%, ABC News/Washington Post poll results showed.
That Republican lead is almost as big as a plus-24 advantage in solid GOP districts. Democrats lead by 35 points in solid blue districts. Overall in House races, registered voters favored Republicans 47% to 46% – historically not enough to prevent typical first-midterm losses by the sitting president's party.
One likely voter model has a 51%-46% Republican-Democratic split, said Langer Research Associates, which conducted the poll for ABC News.
The GOP also is favored with three of the four most important issues heading into the midterms.
The economy (84%), education and schools (77%), inflation (76%), and crime (69%) rated as the four most important issues to voters. Republicans were considered the party more trusted to deal with the issue with the economy (plus-16 over Democrats), inflation (plus-19), and crime (plus-14).
The GOP earned its biggest lead in handling crime in 30 years as the issue has surpassed abortion among concerns for Americans.
Democrats held a plus-6 rating in addressing education and schools.
It was little surprise that Joe Biden's party also was considered the party more trusted to address abortion (plus-20) and climate change (plus-23), though those issues were ranked Nos. 5 and 7 among the top seven by voters. Immigration (61%) came in as the No. 6 most important issue. Democrats held a 1-point led as being trusted to handle it.
When the president's approval has been less than 50% – Biden's current approval rating is below the mark by a considerable margin – his party has lost an average of 37 seats.
A "clear" majority (56%) of Biden's own Democratic Party registered voters want the party to nominate a new candidate in the 2024 presidential election, the poll found.
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted Sept. 18-21 in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,006 adults, including 908 registered voters. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points. Related Stories:
Source: Newsmax