The Final NBC Poll: Democrats Lead 52 to 45 for Congress, With Trump's Disapproval at 60 Percent
The last NBC News survey before Election Day gives Democrats a seven-point lead on control of Congress — while voters still trust Republicans more on immigration and, narrowly, on the economy.
Democrats go into Election Day with a seven-point national lead in the final NBC News poll, released Sunday. Asked which party they prefer to control Congress, 52 percent of registered voters chose the Democrats and 45 percent chose the Republicans — a gap two points wider than in NBC's previous survey, in a poll of 1,000 registered voters conducted October 28 to 30 with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The discontent underneath the number runs at the White House: 60 percent of voters disapproved of President Donald Trump's performance. But the poll is not a love letter to the alternative — only 29 percent of voters viewed the Democratic Party positively, against 38 percent for the Republican Party, and an earlier Ipsos survey conducted October 22 to 26 found a similar Democratic edge, 53 to 44 among likely voters.
On the issues, the parties split the trust questions. Republicans were trusted more on immigration by 11 points and on the economy by 2, while Democrats edged inflation by 1 — in a survey where 73 percent of voters said they were dissatisfied with the state of the economy. The poll, conducted for NBC by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies, measures preference, not seats: which party that preference elects on Tuesday is the count that starts when polls close.
