More U.S. voters want to see the GOP take control of the House and Senate next year, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll, an ominous sign for Democrats as they prepare to defend their razor-thin majorities in both chambers.
Forty-six percent of registered voters say they would rather see Republicans win the House majority in 2022, compared to 41 percent who say that Democrats should retain control in the lower chamber.
It’s a similar case in the Senate. Forty-six percent say they want the GOP to take control of the upper chamber, while 42 percent are hoping for a Democratic majority, the poll found.
Democrats were already expected to face historical headwinds heading into 2022, given that the party of a new president tends to lose ground in Congress in midterm elections. But the poll adds to mounting evidence that roughly a year after voters handed Democrats control of Washington, Americans may be feeling a sense of buyers remorse.
Republicans need to net just five seats in the House and only one in the Senate next year to recapture control of Congress. The GOP is also expected to benefit from decennial redistricting in several key states that hold the potential to shift the balance of power in the House.
A slight majority of Americans in the new poll — 52 percent — say the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left, while just 35 percent believe the GOP has moved too far to the right.
Still, congressional Democrats have the edge in overall job approval. Thirty-one percent of Americans say that they approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, while just 25 percent say the same about congressional Republicans.
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But just 25 percent say that they’re either very or somewhat satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. right now. Nearly three-quarters of Americans — 74 percent — say that they’re dissatisfied with the direction of the country, including 50 percent who say that they’re very dissatisfied.
The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,378 U.S. adults, including 1,262 registered voters, from Nov. 11 to 15. It has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points for the full sample of U.S. adults, and 2.8 percentage points for the sample of registered voters.