Nearly half of voters say they’re likely to vote for Republicans to represent them in Congress, giving the party a slight but firm advantage as the party seeks to gain control of both the Senate and the House in November.
About 49% of likely voters say they plan to vote for a Republican compared to just 45% who said the same about Democrats, according to a new New York Times-Siena College poll. The latest numbers show a significant improvement for the GOP, who trailed Democrats by 1 percentage point in a similar poll conducted in September.
GOP NARROWS DEMOCRATS’ LEAD AMONG LATINO VOTERS: POLL
The increase in Republican support is partly due to economic concerns and rising inflation topping voter concerns, with 44% of voters saying those were the most important issues facing the country, according to the poll. Of those who are most concerned with the economy, a majority of voters favor Republicans (64%) over Democrats (30%) to handle the issue.
Democrats hold a 20-point advantage among voters who rate any other issue as their top concern.
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The biggest swing came from female independent voters who favored Republicans by 18 points — a massive increase from September when the demographic group backed Democrats by 14 points, according to the poll. Democrats have especially sought to motivate women to turn out to the polls by heavily focusing on abortion, but the latest polls show the economy has trumped abortion as a top voter concern.
The New York Times-Siena College poll surveyed 792 likely voters nationwide from Oct. 9-12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
