Poll: Dems lead GOP by 7 points on generic House ballot

Democrats hold a 7 point lead over Republicans on the generic House ballot, according to a new Marist/NPR/PBS NewsHour poll released Wednesday.

Forty-seven percent of registered voters in the poll said they would vote for the Democrat in their district if an election was held today, compared to the 40 percent who said they would support the Republican candidate.

Seven percent said they would vote for neither party and another 7 percent were undecided.

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Voters polled who have a household income of less than $50,000 were also more likely to say they would vote for the Democratic candidate, with a 14 point gap, as were college graduates, by 17 percentage points.

Those living in rural areas or small towns were more likely to support Republicans over Democrats. The GOP also held a 14-point lead among white voters without a college degree.

University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said Tuesday that Democrats are the favorites to win back the House in this year’s midterm election for the first time, as he shifted 17 House races in favor of Democrats.

Democrats need to win 23 seats in the upcoming midterms in order to gain control of the House.

Marist/NPR/PBS NewsHour conducted phone interviews with 1,061 adults from July 19-22 and the overall poll had a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.

Registered voters made up 923 of the respondents and the margin of error for that subset is 3.8 percentage points.