Trump approval near career low ahead of elections, poll finds

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval rating held near a career low as a broad swath of the U.S. electorate saw their vote in Tuesday’s congressional midterm elections as a way to oppose the Republican president, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.

The poll results underscore Republican vulnerabilities brought on by a surge in fuel prices since Trump launched a war on Iran in February. Voters in the nationwide poll said they preferred Democrats over Republicans — 46% to 38% — in what is known as a “generic ballot” question.

Still, that 8-percentage-point Democratic advantage was narrower than in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted a week earlier, when Democrats led by 11 points.

The generic ballot question gives an overall view of which party voters nationwide would like to see in charge in Congress, though it does not capture the nuances of the state-by-state and district-by-district contests that determine control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump’s fellow Republicans are fighting to retain the party’s majorities in Congress.

Political strategists from both parties think Democrats have the best shot at winning control of the House, where all 435 seats are up for grabs. Democrats face a more difficult path to victory in the U.S. Senate, with the party on the defensive in Alaska and Michigan in recent days.

While Trump won’t be on the ballot, he looms large in the election.

Some 32% of poll respondents said they approved of the job Trump was doing in the White House, unchanged from a week earlier and just above his record-low reading of 31% two weeks ago.

Among registered voters, some 50% of independents said they saw their vote in congressional elections as a vote against Trump, compared with 13% who said it was a vote for Trump and 33% who said the president wasn’t a factor in their vote.

Some 78% of voters said the rising cost of living would be very important or the most important issue in deciding how to vote. Asked which party was better on the issue, voters in the poll picked Democrats over Republicans, 43% to 32%.

Democrats appear to have more enthusiasm about voting, which the party hopes will lead to an advantage in voter turnout. Some 49% of Democratic voters said they are “very enthusiastic” about voting this year, compared with 33% of Republicans.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,765 U.S. adults online and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.