Democrats, GOP neck-and-neck on generic ballot as Biden ratings tick up: poll

Democrats and Republicans are nearly tied on a generic congressional ballot as President Biden sees his ratings trending slightly upward, according to a new poll.

The survey, from Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll and shared exclusively with The Hill, showed 51 percent of registered voters supporting the Democratic candidate compared to 49 percent backing the Republican when respondents were asked whom they were more likely to vote for if the election were held today.

The polling largely fell along partisan lines, with 92 percent of Republicans and 96 percent of Democrats saying they would back their party’s candidate. Among independents, 49 percent said they would back the Democrat while 51 percent said they would support the Republican candidate.

The poll also reflected that the president is seeing his ratings, including his approval rating, tick upward slightly, though it still remains underwater.

Forty-one percent of respondents say they approve of Biden’s job as president, compared to 38 percent when the poll was last conducted. But this latest polling shows that 54 percent of people still disapprove of his job performance.

Biden’s rating ticked upward slightly when it came to his handling of issues like the economy (37 percent, an increase of 1 percentage point since the last poll), stimulating jobs (up 3 percentage points to 44 percent), fighting terrorism (up 1 percentage point to 42 percent) and handling inflation (up 3 percentage points to 36 percent), among others.

Despite Biden’s low ratings, Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, said that Republicans haven’t used the opportunity to form stronger messaging.

“Biden remains significantly under water especially on inflation though the generic congressional horse race is still holding up. Republicans continue to struggle with their message despite clear opportunities,” Penn said.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey was conducted Sept. 7-8 and surveyed 1,885 registered voters. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.

The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.