Democrats hold 8-point advantage 1 week before midterms: Survey

Democrats have an 8-point lead over Republicans in the final week before the midterm elections, according to a new survey released Tuesday.

The Marist Poll , conducted alongside NPR and PBS News, found voters favor Democrats over Republicans by 52-44 precent.

Independents also prefer Democrats over the GOP, with 52 percent saying so. Another 39 percent of independents said they are likely to vote for Republicans, the poll shows.

Just over half of respondents at 51 percent said they think the Democrat running in their district will win, and 46 percent said the same about their district’s Republican candidate.

The pollsters also found that 44 percent of respondents said they will use their vote for Congress as a referendum against President Trump, while 21 percent say their votes will be in favor of the president. Roughly 35 percent say Trump has no role in their decision on who they vote into Congress.

Pollsters also found that 44 percent of independents said they will vote against the president, compared to 12 percent who said their vote will be in his favor.

A majority of voters say they are enthusiastic or very enthusiastic to vote in the midterms, at 84 percent. Another 16 percent said the opposite, the numbers show.

Just over 90 percent of Democrats are slightly more enthusiastic than the 86 percent of GOP voters who said the same. About 76 percent of independents say they’re excited to vote, according to the poll.

It also found that just over three-quarters of respondents, 77 percent, say they are confident that their state or local government will conduct elections fair and accurately, and 21 percent say they are not very confident or not confident at all about the results.

Democrats lead in believing local or state leaders will hold fair elections , at 88 percent, followed by 75 percent of independents and 68 percent of Republicans.

Most of the survey’s respondents say they think if their candidate loses, they should accept the election results, at 81 percent. Another 16 percent say their candidate should probably or definitely challenge the results.

Democrats and independents both said their candidates should accept the respective results of the elections, at 90 and 83 percent respectively. About 70 percent of GOP respondents agreed, according to the poll.

Trump has hit the campaign trail across several red states as part of his final pitch to voters to back Republicans on the ballot next Tuesday. The president has seen his approval rating drop in recent months over his handling of the economy , inflation , the Iran war and gas prices.

But the latest poll shows Trump’s approval rating to be at 40 percent, with 59 percent saying they do not approve of his handling of the presidency.

The NPR/PBS News/Marist survey was conducted Oct. 19-20 and included 1,289 respondents. The margin of error is 3.8 percentage points.