​​Democrats hold 4-point advantage on generic congressional ballot: survey

Democrats hold a 4-percentage point lead against Republicans on a generic congressional ballot, according to a new poll that comes amid low approval ratings for President Biden.

The Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday found that 46 percent of respondents would choose the Democrat when asked which candidate they would most likely vote for if the election for Congress in their district was held today, compared to 42 percent who said the Republican.

A separate 12 percent either said they had no opinion or did not know.

In a New York Times-Siena College poll released this week, 41 percent of respondents said their preference for the outcome of November elections was Democratic control of Congress versus 40 percent who said Republican control. Another 19 percent in that poll said they did not know or refused to answer the question. 

Those results, however, are within the margin of error, essentially meaning that respondents were tied over which party they would like to see control Congress.

The new polling offers a little optimism for Democrats, who are bracing for a challenging November election given rising inflation, the historical precedent that a sitting president’s party generally suffers losses in the midterms and Biden’s lagging approval ratings. 

The Politico-Morning Consult poll found that only 40 percent of respondents approved of the job that Biden is doing as president and only 28 percent said he should run for president in 2024. 

The survey of 2,005 adults was conducted July 8-July 10. Its margin of error is 2 percentage points.