Voters are more likely to choose Republicans over Democrats in the 2022 midterms, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released on Friday.
Among registered voters surveyed, 47 percent said they are “more likely” to choose a Republican candidate in their congressional district during the midterms, while 44 percent said they would choose a Democratic candidate.
The poll has a margin of error of 3.7 points. It marks the first time since 2014 that Marist found more support for Republicans than Democrats prior to an election, NPR noted.
Among surveyed voters, 40 percent thought the Republican Party could handle crime more effectively, while 23 percent said the Democratic Party would do a better job.
The poll showed similar results when respondents were asked about inflation. With inflation reaching its highest level in decades in March, 43 percent of surveyed voters said Republicans could better handle inflation, compared with 21 percent for Democrats.
Meanwhile, Democrats outperformed Republicans among pluralities of registered voters on issues including handling of the Covid pandemic (38 percent for Democrats versus 27 percent for Republicans) and LGBT issues (48 percent for Democrats versus 20 percent for Republicans). Additionally, 42 percent of surveyed voters preferred the Democratic Party’s handling of abortion compared with 33 percent who preferred Republicans.
Parents of children under the age of 18 swung massively toward Republicans. Sixty percent said they would vote for a Republican, while 39 percent said they’d cast their ballot for a Democrat. Latinos also preferred Republicans, 52-39 percent.
The survey was conducted from April 19-26 and included 1,377 American adults over age 18, of which 1,162 were registered voters.
The poll comes after warnings from Democrats of potential Republican victories in Congress this fall. President Biden’s approval rating has remained low since the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, with his current approval at 41.5 percent compared with 53.2 percent disapproval in RealClearPolitics‘s polling average.
In another setback for Democrats, New York’s highest court rejected the Democrat-controlled state legislature’s congressional district district maps on Wednesday. The court said the maps were drawn “with impermissible partisan purpose,” and would have redrawn three Republican districts to make them easier for Democrats to win.