By a 12-point margin, registered voters say they’d prefer to elect a Democrat to Congress over a Republican, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

The poll finds more voters think Democrats would do a better job dealing with gas prices, the economy, and foreign policy than Republicans amid rising prices and the war in Iran. A majority also say it is more important to back candidates with new ideas who will bring about change than those with experience and a proven record.

President Trump continues to sit at near record low approval ratings, with just 39% approving of his job and the highest share of strong disapproval — 53% — since the question was first asked in 2017.

In the final weeks of the 2026 campaign, Democrats have a notable edge in voter enthusiasm and support from independents as a building wave of backlash to the party in power comes into focus.

The survey of 1,280 respondents was conducted September 14-15 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points, meaning results could be about 3.8 points higher or lower. Respondents were reached by live caller, text and online.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260923121152/https://www.npr.org/2026/09/23/nx-s1-5977613/trump-poll-democrats-congress

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
    15·
    5 days ago

    Another page talking about this same poll (arc) had this interesting part,

    On the issues, Democrats hold an advantage over Republicans on which party would better handle the economy (42% Democratic Party to 34% Republican Party), foreign policy (42% Democratic Party to 36% Republican Party), and gas prices (40% Democratic Party to 27% Republican Party). The gap narrows considerably on immigration. Here, voters divide with 41% reporting the Democratic Party would do a better job and 38% saying the Republican Party would handle the issue better. Impressions of the Democratic Party’s handling of immigration have improved, though, since 2024. At that time, 30% of registered voters thought the Democrats would do a better job on immigration, and 42% said the Republicans would better address the issue.

    Independents’ views widen the Democratic advantage on three of the four issues. On gas prices, independents favor Democrats by 26 percentage points (41% to 15% Republican Party). On foreign policy, the Democrats (47%) hold a 22-percentage point advantage over the Republicans (25%), and on the economy, Independents give a 19-percentage point advantage to the Democrat Party (41% to 22% Republican Party). On immigration, independents still favor Democrats but by a narrower 14 percentage points (41% Democratic Party to 27% Republican Party). Of note, 18% of independents think that neither party would do a good job handling immigration.

    My theory is that these independents see immigration as a choice between Republicans who are honest about horrible policies and Dems who are dishonest about ineffective policies. Dems saying that they want to militarize our border, telling migrants not to come here, or other right wing talking points doesn’t do them any favors because it just makes voters think that even the Dems think Republicans’ bigotry is justified. Instead, flip the conversation and talk about how our immigration system makes it impossible for people who are trying to do things the right way and frame yourselves as champions of law abiding blue collar types on every side of the border.

    • grue@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 days ago

      I don’t allow political ads to expose themselves to me (and yes, I did deliberately phrase it in such a way as to compare advertisers to rapey perverts), so I don’t know how Democratic candidates are presenting themselves on immigration.

      But IMO what they should be doing, whether they’re actually anti-immigration or not, is pointing out that Trump is turning ICE into his personal gestapo (at extreme tax expense, BTW) and murdering US citizens (even white women!1) in the street, while Biden still removed a fuckton of people but without all that collateral damage to citizens and the rule of law.

      Put the emphasis on the fascist thuggery and how it’s bad for the proverbial ‘white moderate’ citizens themselves, while not even being effective for its claimed purpose.

      (1 I’m not saying I think the victims being white women is important; I’m saying other people who are closeted bigots do and a Democratic candidate emphasizing it exploits their bigotry for good.)

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
        3·
        5 days ago

        Interesting theory, but imo

        a) Never ever ever bring up Biden, his administration was a failure that was rejected by voters and there’s absolutely no need to waste political capital trying to rehabilitate his legacy. If someone else brings him up the answer should always be “Biden failed because [whatever], what my administration will do differently is [whatever].”

        b) I think most voters are going to have a really hard time believing that anything bad could ever happen to them personally the same way they think about car crashes and mass shootings, so I think the “ICE is Trump’s Gestapo and a threat to you” argument will fall flat (even though in reality it’s an excellent point). Like, even with Renee Good they will say “Well, that was terrible, but she was a protestor and I’m not so I’m fine.”

        c) Closet bigots still think bigotry is bad, they just also believe they’re not bigots, so appealing to bigotry too directly isn’t going to win them over and it will make progressive voters stay home. I think emphasizing the “law abiding” nature of most migrants will reach that exact type of voter tho (like, law abiding is just assumed when we’re talking about white citizens and it’s not with brown migrants, which is a fucked up double standard, but arguing about that is almost as big of a waste of time as arguing with people about Joe Biden in 2026).