As we get closer to the November midterm elections, now less than five weeks away, we're seeing once again an emphasis that the Republican Party still enjoys an edge when it comes to the generic ballot. More good news for the Republican Party comes in the form of polling which looks to issues that matter to Americans, and which party enjoys more trust and support to handle them.
Polls consistently show that economic issues, such as inflation, are the most important to voters. Republicans also enjoy support to handle these issues, and by healthy margins.
On Monday, Gallup released polling showing that the Republican Party is more favored to govern, as Spencer highlighted. It bears reminding that more Americans favor the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, by 44 percent to 39 percent. By even greater numbers, respondents favor Republicans when it comes to doing "a better job of protecting the country from international terrorism and military threats," by 57 percent to 37 percent. They also favor Republicans to "do a better job of keeping the country prosperous," by 51 to 41 percent.
A write-up from Megan Brenan noted that that 51 percent "is the better choice ties the highest on record for the party."
GALLUP POLL: Which political party do you think will do a better job of keeping the country Prosperous?
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) October 4, 2022
Republicans 51% (+10)
Democrats 41%
2022: R+10 (largest GOP lead since 1994)
2020: D+1
2018: R+5
2014: R+9
2012: D+9
2010: R+8
2008: D+13
2006: D+17https://t.co/ByQvQOkNnn pic.twitter.com/ATBmXDChEr
It's also worth mentioning that even more problematic for the Democratic Party is that Democrats have a lower approval rating of their own party than Republicans favor theirs. This is an low for Democrats and an average high for Republicans.
As Brennan wrote:
More than eight in 10 rank-and-file Republicans (87%) and Democrats (84%) view their own parties favorably. While Republicans' favorable rating of the GOP is essentially unchanged from last year, Democrats' rating of their own party has fallen eight points to the lowest reading of Joe Biden's presidency.
Since 2008, favorability among partisans has averaged 88% for the Democratic Party and 82% for the Republican Party.
That poll was conducted September 1-16, with a sample of 812 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Even CNN's Harry Enten admitted the good news the poll brought, writing "Republicans hold a near-historic lead on a key midterm indicator."
Gallup has also had other bad news for the Democratic Party in previous polls. This includes how Americans have been truly affected by inflation in the poll released in September, how much suffering they endured in the poll released in August, how they were pessimistic about the country in the poll released late June. Another deep dive release from earlier in June got to the point, declaring "Usual Midterm Indicators Very Unfavorable for Democrats."
Not only are the Gallup poll results telling on their own, which they are. They're also bolstered by a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. A write-up for Reuters indicates that the edge the Republican Party has when it comes to issues of immigration and crime could help in November, "suggesting the Republican emphasis on border security and fighting crime could help it in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed."
Forty percent of voters said Republicans were best suited to address immigration, while 32 percent said Democrats were. On solving crime, 39 percent said Republicans were better suited, and 30 percent said Democrats were.
That poll was conducted September 27-October 3, with 4,415 adults and a credibility interview between 2 and 5 percentage points.
Another Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted weekly, also found a drop in approval ratings for President Joe Biden, down from 41 percent to 40 percent. As a separate write-up noted, "U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rating edged lower this week and was close to the lowest level of his presidency, with just five weeks to go before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday found."
That poll was conducted with 1,003 adults. Even more damning was that the poll included more Democrats, 448 of them compared to 383 Republicans.