Poll: Democrats lead Republicans by 2 points on generic House ballot

Democrats hold a slim lead over Republicans on a poll of U.S. adults’ preferences for which party they want controlling the House after November’s midterm elections.

In an Economist–YouGov poll released Wednesday, 34 percent of U.S. adults said they wanted to see Democrats retake control of the House, while another 32 percent said they wanted Republicans to maintain control of the chamber.

{mosads}Another 13 percent say they want control in the lower chamber to be split between the two parties, while more than 20 percent of respondents didn’t have a preference between the two parties.

Democrats hold an 8-point advantage among women in the poll, while Republicans hold a 4-point lead over Democrats among men. Independent voters surveyed in the poll broke for Republicans, giving the party a 5-point lead over Democrats among unaffiliated voters.

Democrats’ lead in the poll has slipped from the same poll taken toward the end of August, which showed Democrats with a 6-point lead at the time.

The poll’s release Wednesday followed the release of another poll, from NPR–Marist, that found the Democrats with a double-digit lead over Republicans among registered voters.

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Democrats have held leads over Republicans in most polls of Americans’ preference for control of the House following November’s midterms since the beginning of the year, though the party’s lead has varied from month-to-month between a double- and single-digit advantage.

The Economist–YouGov poll surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults from Sept. 9 to 11 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.