Generic Congress Ballot – Rasmussen Reports®

Nerd of the Generic Congress

Democrats take a small lead on this week's poll

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

As Election Day approaches, the Democrats have pulled out to leave a small lead over the Republicans in the congressional poll this week.

The latest telephone and online survey of Rasmussen Reports reveals that 47% of likely US voters would choose the Democratic candidate if congressional elections were held today. Forty-four percent (44%) would opt for the Republican. Three percent (3%) prefer another candidate and six percent (6%) are undecided. (To see the wording of the survey question, click here.)

Since Rasmussen Reports began the weekly survey in early May, Democrats have been running weekly except for one in mid-August, when the two parties were tied at 44 percent. But the congressional ballot has tightened the connection in the past two weeks after the controversial conclusion of the controversial Senate confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Rasmussen Reports updates the results of the Congressional Generic Poll every week on Wednesday at 8:30 am Eastern Time until midterm elections in November.

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The survey of 2,500 potential voters was conducted from 14 to 18 October 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of error in sampling is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See the methodology.

At that time, in 2014, before the last congressional elections held during a non-presidential year, the two parties were tied at 41% each.

The Republicans then took control of the Senate in these elections and increased their majority in the House of Representatives.

Eighty-four percent (84%) of Republicans prefer their party's candidate, while as many Democrats (85%) opt for their party's candidate. Among voters not affiliated with any of the major parties, Democrats are up 43 percent to 37 percent. But 21% of unaffiliated voters prefer someone else or are undecided.

In the US House of Representatives, 435 seats are cast in November. Republicans now have a 47-seat majority in the House, so Democrats should withdraw 24 GOP seats to take control.

In the United States, 32 seats are vacant in November, but 23 of them are now occupied by Democrats. The Democrats must therefore hold 23 of these seats and win two Republican seats to gain control of the Senate.

Most voters believe that Democrats are likely to take over the House of Representatives after next month's elections, but do not expect them to capture the Senate either.

Nearly half of the voters have seen at least one candidate debate during the mid-term election season, but they are divided on whether or not these debates are of value to them.

Health care is an important factor when it comes to choosing the voters who will vote in the mid-term elections, but they continue to look to the free market, not the government, to resolve the issues. problems related to rising health care costs.

Additional information from this survey and a complete demographic breakdown are available for Platinum members only.

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