More Democrats than Republicans say they’ll ‘definitely’ vote in midterms: survey

Democrats hold a 3-percentage point lead over Republicans when it comes to registered American voters who say they will “definitely” vote in the November midterms, according to a new poll. 

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released on Tuesday showed that 48 percent of registered Democratic voters said they “definitely will vote” in November, compared to 45 percent of registered Republican voters, according to the news outlet. 

The poll also found that Democrats hold a 4-percentage point lead over Republicans on a generic congressional ballot among registered voters. 

Forty-five percent of registered voters said they would choose the Democratic candidate when asked which candidate they would vote for in their congressional district if the midterms were held today, compared to 40 percent who said the Republican candidate. 

While the poll shows Democrats maintaining some momentum against Republicans ahead of the midterms, President Biden is still plagued by low approval ratings. The poll found that 40 percent of respondents approve of Biden’s job as president, compared to 52 percent who said they disapprove. 

Those figures tick slightly upward on both ends when focusing on registered voters: Forty-three percent approve of his job as president compared to 53 percent who disapprove. 

Since the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the political landscape has shifted for Democrats as the high court’s decision has energized voters from key ballot measure initiatives in Kansas to special elections in New York. 

However, Democrats are still expected to face a challenging midterm environment given Biden’s low approval ratings, inflation and the precedent that the president’s party generally suffers losses in the midterms.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll was conducted Sept. 2-6 with 1,634 adults surveyed. The margin of error is 2.6 percentage points.