Rasmussen Poling Summary: Reps v Dems House/Senate and more

Voters Now Favor GOP By 13 Points for House, Senate

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

With the midterms elections now less than a year away, Republicans have a double-digit lead in their bid to recapture control of Congress.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that, if the elections for Congress were held today, 51% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Republican candidate, while 38% would vote for the Democrat. Just three percent (3%) would vote for some other candidate, but another eight percent (8%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

In January 2018, before voters handed Democrats their first House majority in eight years, Democrats held an eight-point advantage (45% to 37%) in the generic ballot question. That margin narrowed as the November 2018 midterms neared, and was a statistical dead heat – Republicans 46%, Democrats 45% – in the final poll before Democrats won a slim House majority while Republicans maintained control of the Senate.

The 13-point edge for Republicans in the latest poll is larger than Democrats enjoyed at any time during the 2018 midterm campaign, due both to greater GOP partisan intensity and a wide advantage among independents. While 89% of Republican voters say they would vote for their own party’s candidate, only 77% of Democrats would vote for the Democratic candidate. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 48% would vote Republican and 26% would vote Democrats, with another 17% undecided.

The survey of 2,500 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on November 8-11, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Biden's approval ratings

Media Bias? Voter Distrust of Political News Grows

Monday, November 15, 2021

Voters increasingly distrust reporting about politics, and most think the media are less aggressive in questioning President Joe Biden than they were with former President Donald Trump.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters don’t trust the political news they’re getting. That’s up from 43% in July. Just 33% now say they trust the political news they’re getting, down from 37% in July. Another 14% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters believe the news media are less aggressive in questioning Biden than they were in questioning Trump. Only 17% think the media question Biden more aggressively than they did with Trump, while 21% think the media’s question of Biden has been about the same as Trump.

More Democrats (48%) than Republicans (21%) or those not affiliated with either major party (26%) trust the political news they’re getting. Even among Democrats, however, nearly a third (32%) don’t trust political news, a sentiment shared by 69% of Republicans and 62% of unaffiliated voters.

The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on November 10-11, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

While 75% of Republicans and 62% of unaffiliated voters think the news media are less aggressive in questioning Biden than they were in questioning Trump, only 38% of Democrats agree. A majority of Democrats believe either that the media treat Biden about the same as Trump (31%) or that the media question Biden more aggressively than they questioned Trump (24%).

Women voters (58%) are more likely than men (47%) to say they don’t trust the political news they’re getting, but there is little difference in their opinions about the media’s aggressiveness in questioning Biden.

Black voters (42%) are more likely than whites (30%) or other minorities (34%) to trust the political news they’re getting. Whites (59%) and other minorities (61%) are more likely than Black voters (44%) to believe the news media are less aggressive in questioning Biden than they were in questioning Trump.

Among voters who don’t trust the political news they’re getting, 76% think the news media are less aggressive in questioning Biden than they were in questioning Trump.

Voters with annual incomes of $100,000 or more are more likely to say they trust the political news they’re getting than those earning less.

Government employees trust political news more than private sector workers do.

President Biden’s strongest supporters trust the media more than other voters do. Among those who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 70% say they trust the political news they’re getting. By contrast, among voters who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, 79% don’t trust the political news they’re getting.

As the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse continues in Kenosha, Wisconsin, voters are largely divided along party lines about whether the teenage gunman should be convicted.

Only 42% of Americans rate the media’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic excellent or good, and many have concerns about the accuracy of reporting on vaccine safety.