Poll: Democratic lead on generic congressional ballot slips to 8 points

A majority of American adults prefer to vote for Democrats rather than Republicans in the 2020 congressional elections, but that lead is slipping, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The Economist-YouGov survey found that 47 percent of registered American voters would vote for a Democrat if the election was held today, compared to 39 percent who would vote for a Republican in their district.

{mosads}Support for Democratic candidates is down from 49 percent in a version of the same poll from last week, while Republican support ticked up from 38 percent.

The shifts are within the sample’s margin of error, which is 2.9 percentage points.

Democrats hold clear leads on the generic congressional ballot in all age groups except for 65 and older, where Republicans lead 51 percent to 41 percent.

White voters polled broke narrowly to Republicans, 45 percent to 43 percent, while African American respondents favored Democrats by nearly 70 points. Hispanic voters surveyed preferred Democrats 42 percent to 39 percent.

Ten percent of respondents said they remained undecided, while 3 percent said that if the election were held today they would not vote.

Democrats currently hold a 235 to 199 majority in the House of Representatives, while Republicans enjoy a 53 to 45 advantage in the Senate, although the two Senate independents caucus with Democrats.

YouGov surveyed 1,184 registered voters for the poll Sept. 14-17.