Most Republicans say they’re voting ‘against Biden’ this year: poll

A majority of Republicans are saying they view their votes in the upcoming midterms as voting “against Biden,” according to a new poll released on Thursday.

A Pew Research Center poll found that 71 percent of registered Republican and Republican-leaning voters surveyed think of their vote for Congress this fall as a vote against President Biden, compared to 26 percent who say the president is not much of a factor. 

Two percent of Republicans say they think of their vote for Congress this fall as a vote in favor of Biden. 

In contrast, 46 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in the poll say they think of their vote for Congress this fall as a vote for the president, closely tied with 47 percent of those in the party who believe the president is not much of a factor.

Only 6 percent of Democrats say they think of their vote for Congress as a vote against the president.

Comparing Americans surveyed as a whole, close percentages of registered voters see the president not being much of a factor and seeing their vote as one against Biden, at 38 and 36 percent, respectively.

A separate 24 percent of Americans surveyed see their vote for Congress as one for Biden, illustrating the partisan divide in the way Americans view their voting this fall.

However, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that they believe partisan control of Congress matters, with 70 percent of Republicans surveyed saying so versus 60 percent of Democrats.

The development comes amid Biden’s lagging approval ratings, with a Reuters-Ipsos poll this week showing that only 40 percent of respondents approved of the job Biden is doing as president. 

The Pew poll was conducted between March 7 and March 13 with 10,441 people surveyed, including 9,021 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.