More Americans Want Republicans To Control Congress Come 2022, Poll Shows

More Americans want to see Republicans take both the House and Senate in 2022 instead of Democrats who retain narrow majorities, a new poll shows.

The Quinnipiac University poll, released Thursday, gives Republicans a 46-38 advantage on a generic House ballot and a 46-40 advantage on a generic Senate ballot. The GOP’s advantages were driven by Independent voters, who broke for Republicans by 10 points on each generic ballot in the poll.

Thursday’s poll was even worse for Biden, showing his approval rating to be 17 points underwater at 36% even as his bipartisan infrastructure bill and $1.75 trillion spending plan polled at 57% and 58% favorability, respectively.

Among registered voters, Republicans hold a five and four-point edge on a generic House and Senate ballot, respectively.

This poll is just the latest to underscore the headwinds facing Democrats as they fight to defend their 221-213 House majority and a 50-50 Senate that relies on Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. Another poll released Sunday gave Republicans a 10-point edge on a generic congressional ballot, and earlier in November, the GOP won the governor’s seat in Virginia and came close to victory in New Jersey, two states that vote reliably Democratic in presidential elections.

Some moderates and Republicans have blamed the loss in Virginia on Democrats moving too far left, an assertion reflected in the Quinnipiac poll, which showed 52% of Americans saying as such while just 35% said that Republicans had moved too far to the right.

Despite Republicans’ edge, it is congressional Democrats that hold the higher approval rating. While 31% said they approved of congressional Democrats, just 25% said the same for congressional Republicans.

The Quinnipiac poll was conducted from Nov. 11-15 among 1,378 adults, 1,262 of whom are registered voters. Its margin of error is 2.8 percentage points.