A new Morning Consult Poll shows voters beginning to regain some trust in Democrats on some issues. On topics such as health care, voting rights, COVID-19, energy, and guns Democrats have increased their lead on the question of “Who do you trust” on a particular issue.
According to the poll, “Congressional Democrats have an average advantage of 6 percentage points (45% to 39%) over congressional Republicans when voters are asked who they trust to handle a range of 14 issues. That edge has steadily increased since early April, when the two parties were essentially tied on the question.”
In truth, all of those issues above are overwhelmed in importance when looking at inflation and the economy in general.
When it comes to the pocketbook issues, the top concern for the bulk of voters this year, congressional Republicans have a double-digit trust advantage on inflation (47% to 36%) and a smaller edge on the economy generally (46% to 39%). While trust in Republicans has held mostly steady, the share who trust Democrats to handle inflation and the economy increased from 30% and 33%, respectively, after rising prices appeared to help drive the numbers to mid-June lows.
The sickening reality is that once the shock of high prices wears off, people begin to learn to live with them, and Democrats’ numbers improve by default.
One of the big surprises in the poll is that only 30 percent of Democrats see the economy as the top issue.
Democrats still lag behind Republicans on the matter of inflation and economy, but trust in Democrats’ ability to grapple with the issues has gone up since a big drop as prices surged in mid-June.
The economy continues to be a major topic for voters, with 55 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of Democrats saying issues like taxes and jobs are top-of-mind, according to the poll.
The next-highest priority for Democrats, at 25 percent, was women’s issues, including birth control and abortion.
On the other hand, there has been no improvement in the president’s approval numbers nor in the generic ballot. “The majority of voters (59%) disapprove of Biden’s job performance, while 39% approve,” according to the poll. The gap between approval and disapproval is slightly bigger than it was in mid-June before congressional Democrats saw their trust advantage improve.
And while Democrats still hold a statistically insignificant lead in the generic ballot, it hasn’t changed much since June.
The overall picture has brightened slightly for Democrats since the beginning of summer. But it’s more a matter of “Nowhere to go but up” as far as the Democrats’ previous numbers. They can grasp at this one straw if they wish, but it hardly changes their odds of keeping the House or Senate.
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