Lauren C. Moye, FISM News
With weeks until American voice their opinion in the midterms, three recent polls hint that Republicans are still on track to enjoy a Red Wave in the midterm election.
Gallup’s Oct. 3 release showed that GOP has a 5-point lead on favorability compared to the Democratic Party, 44% to 39% respectively.
The GOP also has a 10-point advantage in perception as the party that can best keep the country prosperous, 51% to 41%, and a 20-point lead on national security.
The pollsters did warn that favorability is rarely linked to midterm results. However, “presidential and congressional job approval, ratings of the economy and satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S., have been more closely linked to election outcomes.”
Unfortunately, Biden’s latest Ipsos poll rating spells disaster for his party on that point. Currently, only 40% of U.S. adults approve of the job Biden has done since he’s been in office.
The Oct. 5 poll is reminiscent of former President Donald Trump’s own rating at this period in his presidency. The early October 2018 Ipsos poll showed he had only 39% of approval.
Unlike his predecessor, who still enjoyed strong partisan encouragement that the country was going in the right direction, Biden’s own pre-midterm poll shows Democratic voters are divided about the direction of the country.
“Just under a quarter of Americans (24%) believe things in this country are headed in the right direction, with the majority (63%) believing things are off on the wrong track. Republicans (84%) and independents (71%) are most likely to be pessimistic about the direction the country is headed in, while Democrats are pretty evenly split between right direction (48%) and wrong track (41%),” the Ipsos poll stated.
Driving American dissatisfaction are Biden’s policy failures and a disconnect between the top priorities of the average voter and the Democratic agenda.
The Ipsos poll found that the U.S. economy is overwhelmingly the priority for Americans with 55% of respondents selecting this as one of their top two core issues. This was followed by employment and jobs (24%), immigration (21%), and the environment (16%).
Other lesser concerns are unifying the country, corruption, taxation, Covid-19, racial inequality, and international trade.
Public approval of Biden’s handling of crucial issues is dismal. His highest rating marks are on his handling of the coronavirus, but even that stands below 50 points with only a 47% approval rating. This was followed by the Environment (44%) and racial inequality (42%).
On the top three American priorities, Biden had a 33% approval on the economy, 38% for employment and jobs, and a 33% ranking in immigration.
The Ipsos poll found that the country is still split evenly with “1 in 3 (33%) Americans say they are most likely to vote for the Democratic candidate, while 32% say the Republican candidate.”
Of the remainder, a slim minority plans to vote for a third party while the rest either do not plan to vote or are still undecided.
This is contradicted by one final poll released last week. Monmouth University found that the number of voters who lean towards casting votes for Republican candidates is now 47% compared to the 44% who lean towards Democratic policies.
The poll results for American priorities included some additional elements that are not helpful to Democratic midterm messaging campaigns. Crime, the second most important American priority according to Monmouth, nets Biden a 32% approval rating.
In fact, Monmouth acknowledged that crime concerns will be a benefit to Republicans, who frequently campaign on this issue.
How people feel is irrelevant if they don’t actually go out to vote. On this point, the Monmouth poll again shines in Republican favor. There is a higher motivation for Republican voters to participate in the midterms, 65%, compared to Democratic voters, 58%.