Quinnipiac Poll: Republicans Lead Democrats in Generic Ballot for Midterms for First Time Since 2014

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 07: U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate
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A poll from Quinnipiac University released Tuesday showed that a generic Republican on the ballot is favored to take back the House of Representatives in the midterm elections next year.

Forty-seven percent of the registered voters said they would rather see the Republican Party win control of the House, while only 44 percent of the registered voters said they would want the Democrats. There were also nine percent who did not give an opinion.

However, in September, the results were almost the opposite; 43 percent of registered voters said the Republican Party, while 47 percent said the Democrat party. There were also 11 percent who did not give an opinion.

The registered voters were asked, “If the election were today, would you want to see the Republican Party or the Democratic Party win control of the United States House of Representatives?”

“Though the numbers are not overwhelming, they signal a potentially ominous trend for Democrats as a plurality of voters recommend tossing out the party that controls the House,” said Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac University.

The last time the Republicans led the Democrats in the poll to win control of the House majority from a Quinnipiac poll was July 2014, when the Republicans had 46 percent as opposed to the Democrats had 44 percent.

The Republicans on the generic ballot bounced back in under two and a half years, since January 2018 when the Republicans polled at their lowest in a generic ballot when they received 35 percent.

Additionally, the last time the Republicans poll was this high, at 47 percent, was in December 2013.

In response to the poll, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Berg said, “Smart Democrats will consider retirement because Nancy Pelosi’s majority is doomed.”

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted between October 1 and 4. There were 1,326 U.S. adults nationwide survey. Quinnipiac did not provide the number of registered voters specifically surveyed. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points.

Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.

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