Congressional Republicans now have a 10-point lead in the generic ballot test ahead of November’s mid-term elections, according to a new poll from The Federalist and Susquehanna Polling & Research.
The new poll found that 49 percent of likely voters would vote for Republicans if the elections were held today, versus just 39 percent who said they would pull the lever for the Democrat candidate. In a previous poll released by The Federalist in February, Republicans had a 47-41 lead in the generic ballot test. Additionally, the new poll found widespread support for anti-groomer laws and Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover bid and widespread opposition to attempts to force female athletes to compete against men who claim to be women.
The poll found that President Joe Biden’s approval rating has fallen to just 39 percent, with 54 percent of likely voters saying they disapproved of Biden’s job performance thus far, for a net disapproval rating of 15 percent. In The Federalist’s February poll, 42 percent of voters approved of Biden’s job performance while 52 percent disapproved.
Biden’s numbers didn’t get much better when voters were asked to rate his performance on specific issues. According to the poll, 52 percent disapproved of Biden’s handling of the illegal immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, 56 percent disapproved of his handling of record-high gas prices, 61 percent disapproved of Biden’s handling of inflation, and 54 percent disapproved of his handling of crime throughout the country.
Biden’s personal favorability ratings weren’t much better according to the poll, with 43 percent of respondents saying they had a favorable opinion of Biden and 52 percent saying they had an unfavorable opinion of him. In contrast, 45 percent of voters said they had a favorable opinion of former President Donald Trump, while 46 percent said their opinion of him was unfavorable.
When asked about their opinion of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., just 31 percent of voters said they had a favorable opinion of her. Vice President Kamala Harris is 15 points underwater on the favorability question, with 38 percent saying they had a favorable opinion of her compared to 53 percent who said their opinion of Harris was unfavorable.
Disapproval of Biden and his policy agenda cuts across party lines. Fifty-nine percent of independents disapprove of the job Biden has done as president, and 63 percent of independents disapprove of how he has handled inflation. Even among self-described progressive liberals, 56 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation.
Voters also seem to be deeply pessimistic about the state of the economy, the poll found. A whopping 75 percent of respondents said they expected the U.S. economy to be in a recession within the next six to 12 months. Sixty-six percent of those surveyed also said they believed the economy had gotten worse over the last six months. New gross domestic product data issued by the Biden administration on Thursday morning indicated that the U.S. economy shrank by 1.4 percent during the first three months of 2022, supporting the views of those voters who believe the economy is getting worse.
The poll, which surveyed 800 likely voters nationwide from April 19 through April 27, also asked respondents a series of questions about policy issues recently featured in the news. When asked if they supported anti-grooming laws, such as one recently passed in Florida, that prohibited government school employees from exposing elementary school children to sexual topics without the consent of their parents, 70 percent of respondents said they supported such laws. Support for anti-grooming laws transcended both party and ideology, according to the poll results. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats and 69 percent of self-described progressive liberals said they supported anti-grooming laws that protect elementary school children from being forcibly exposed to sexual topics by school employees without parental consent.
On the issue of transgender sports, 69 percent of respondents said it was unfair to force female athletes to compete against male athletes who identify as transgender and claim to be women. Majorities of Republicans (74 percent), Democrats (63 percent), and Independents (71 percent), as well as majorities of self-described conservatives (74 percent), moderates (69 percent), and progressive liberals (65 percent), said they believed it was unfair to force women to compete against men who claim to be women.
When asked if they supported entrepreneur Elon Musk’s bid to purchase Twitter and eliminate political censorship from the social media platform, voters said they supported Musk’s free-speech takeover of Twitter by a more than 2-to-1 margin, with 59 percent saying they supported his bid compared to just 28 percent who opposed it.
Voters also expressed widespread distrust of and dissatisfaction with the corporate news media. Seventy-three percent said they believe the corporate news media misrepresents the facts in order to push a political agenda on their audience. Only 17 percent said they trusted the corporate news media to tell the truth.
Full crosstabs of the poll results can be found here.
