Ballot Box

Poll: Most wouldn’t want Obama campaigning for them

Nearly six in 10 voters said they would not want President Obama to campaign with them if they were running for office in the midterm elections, according to a new poll. 

The Fox News poll released Monday night found 57 percent would not want Obama to campaign with them, while 41 percent said they would. Another 2 percent were undecided. 

{mosads}The number of people who would not want Obama on the campaign trail shot up 7 points since the last midterm election in 2010, as the president’s current approval rating stands at 42 percent. 

The trend is not uncommon for presidents of both parties. Six years into former President George W. Bush’s presidency, 60 percent of voters said they would not want him campaigning for them if they were running for office. 

Twenty-nine percent of Democrats say they would not want Obama campaigning with them, compared to 69 percent who would. Among independents, 66 percent say they would not want his help, while 32 percent say the opposite. 

Democrats face a tough election landscape in November in trying to protect their majority in the Senate. Republicans would need to net six seats to take control of the upper chamber. The GOP has a comfortable 17-seat majority in the House. 

According to the poll, 43 percent surveyed said they would support a Democratic candidate in the midterms, while 41 percent said they would back a Republican. However, Republicans express more excitement about the midterms than do Democrats. 

The poll surveyed 1,057 registered voters from July 20-22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.