Democrats are up 8 points over Republicans on a generic congressional ballot, according to new polling.
In the NBC News survey released Sunday, 50 percent of respondents said they wanted “a Congress controlled by Democrats” after the 2026 midterm elections, while 42 percent said they wanted “a Congress controlled by Republicans.” Eight percent in the poll were unsure about who they wanted to control the legislative branch.
The poll also found Republicans losing ground in recent months. In March, 47 percent of respondents said that they wanted the GOP to have power over the legislative branch.
The new survey comes amid a heated battle between parties over the government shutdown, which has now stretched into its 34th day. House Republicans have recently grown worried over how they will catch up with lost time in the wake of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) action to keep the chamber out of session for over a month amid the government shutdown.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Sunday that he hopes the shutdown could end this week with President Trump having returned from his Asia trip.
“We knew this wasn’t going to end unless Donald Trump was back in the country. He’s now back in the country. He’s got to go ahead and put America first and sit down with us, deal with the health care shortage,” Warner said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
The new polling also comes as voters head to the polls in high-profile races to elect new governors in New Jersey and Virginia as well as the closely watched mayoral race in New York City.
Forty percent in the NBC News poll said their midterm congressional vote is going to represent “opposition” to President Trump, with 30 percent said it is going to represent “support for Trump” and 29 percent said it will represent “not a signal either way about Trump.”
The NBC News poll took place from Oct. 24 to 28, featuring 1,000 registered voters and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
