DEAD HEAT: Stunning New Poll Shows GOP Drawing Even With Dems Ahead of Midterms

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

A stunning new survey conducted by the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard (CAPS), the Harris Poll, and HarrisX suggests that the GOP has drawn even with the Democrats with eight months to go until the midterm elections.

The poll of 1,999 registered voters, which was conducted online between February 25 and 26, found that 50% of Americans would vote for the Republican candidate in their congressional district and 50% would vote for the Democratic one if the midterms were held today. That marked an enormous improvement for the GOP, which trailed the Democrats 54%-46% on the same question last month.

When presented with the following hypothetical campaign message from the GOP, 54% of respondents said they found it “believable”:

Republicans say that they are returning responsibility to government by arresting criminals, closing the borders, keeping tax es low, and lowering energy costs. We can’t go back to the Democrats who were allowing our cities and way of life to deteriorate and prices on energy and food to soar while fraud took billions and billions of dollars of their giveaway programs.

Just 48% of respondents, meanwhile, said they found this hypothetical message from Democrats credible:

Democrats say we are for affordability. Free government services. Free housing and transportation. Healthcare for all. Free student loans. We have the money and can provide these services if you elect us to office and we will bring down the billionaires

Sixty-one percent of Americans, though, indicated that they would be receptive to an overtly anti-Trump message from Democrats along the lines of:

Suppose the Democrats say we need to stop Donald Trump. He is a runaway dictator,
and we need a check on his power by returning the Congress to the Democrats. His
tariffs are increasing prices, and he is off on foreign adventures.

For his part, Trump’s net approval rating ticked upward from -6 last month (45%-51%) to -3, (46%-49%).

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