Generic Congressional Ballot
Generic Ballot: Republican 48%, Democrat 36%
Monday, August 16, 2010 Email to a Friend ShareThis.Advertisement
Republican candidates have jumped out to a record-setting 12-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, August 15, 2010. This is the biggest lead the GOP has held in over a decade of Rasmussen Reports surveying.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely Voters would vote for their district's Republican congressional candidate, while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Support for Republicans is up two points from the previous week, while support for Democrats dropped three points.Republicans have led on the Generic Congressional Ballot since June of last year, and their lead hasn’t fallen below five points since the beginning of December. Three times this year, they've posted a 10-point lead. Prior to this survey, GOP support since June 2009 has ranged from 41% to 47%. Support for Democrats in the same period has run from 35% to 40%.
Eighty-three percent (83%) of Republicans back their party's candidate, while 75% of Democrats support the candidate of their party. Voters not affiliated with either party prefer the GOP candidate by a 52% to 21% margin.Fifty-four percent (54%) of white voters favor the Republican, but 77% of African-Americans prefer the Democrat.
The number of Republicans in the United States slipped a point during July, while the number of unaffiliated voters gained a point. Overall, the numbers signal a high level of stability in the parties as there have been only modest shifts throughout 2010.
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Results for this survey are compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results and generic ballot trends are available for Platinum Members only.
The Generic Ballot results were much different during the last two election cycles when Democrats regularly had large leads. When President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, Democrats enjoyed a seven-point advantage. The two parties were very close through the spring of 2009, but in June, around the time Democrats began their campaign for health care reform, Republicans pulled ahead for good.
Most voters now believe the Democratic congressional agenda is extreme, while a plurality describe the Republican agenda as mainstream.
Most also think Obama and the average Democrat in Congress are more liberal, politically speaking, than they are.
With midterm elections less than three months away, nearly two-out-of-three voters (65%) remain at least somewhat angry at the current policies of the federal government, including 40% who are Very Angry. Only 23% think the government has the consent of the governed.
Support for repeal of the health care reform bill is at 60%, its highest level in over a month, while the number of voters who believe repeal will be good for the economy has reached a new high.
Voters overwhelmingly believe that most members of Congress are for sale, and over half think it’s at least somewhat likely that their own representative has been bought with cash or a campaign contribution.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of voters nationwide believe elections are fair to voters.
Seventy percent (70%) now expect politics in Washington, D.C. to be more partisan over the next year. That's up four points from last month and the highest finding since Obama took office in January 2009.
Most Americans still oppose granting U.S. citizenship automatically to children born in America to illegal immigrants.
For the second week in a row, 30% of Likely Voters say the country is heading in the right direction.
Rasmussen Reports has recently surveyed House races in North Dakota and South Dakota and Senate races in Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
Rasmussen Reports also has released recent polls on the 2010 governor's races in Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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