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Democratic Lead Now at 16 Points in U.S.
- More Americans will back the Democratic Party in next month's congressional election, according to a poll by Opinion Research Corporation released by CNN. 56 per cent of respondents would vote for the Democratic contender in their district, while 40 per cent would support the Republican candidate.
Support for the Democrats increased by three points since early October, while backing for the Republicans fell by two points. Voters in the United States will renew the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate on Nov. 7.
In the November 2004 congressional ballot, the Republican Party elected 232 lawmakers to the United States House of Representatives with 49.2 per cent of the vote, while the Democratic Party secured 202 seats with 46.6 per cent. The Republicans also have a majority in the Senate, with 55 members in the 100-seat upper house.
Yesterday, Republican Arizona senator John McCain—who is not up for re-election this year—discussed the current state of affairs, saying, "I think we have a very challenging election. I think we are going to work very hard in the next three weeks getting our message out: We have a strong economy, we have low unemployment, we have low inflation, America is safer than it was on 9/11, we have numerous national security challenges that we are better qualified to address. We have a strong message and we have to get it out."
Polling Data
If the elections for Congress were being held today, which party's candidate would you vote for in your Congressional district? As of today, do you lean more toward?
(Registered Voters)
Oct. 15 | Oct. 2 | Sept. 2 | |
Democrat | 56% | 53% | 53% |
Republican | 40% | 42% | 43% |
Other / Not sure | 4% | 5% | 4% |
Source: Opinion Research Corporation / CNN
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,012 American adults, conducted from Oct. 13 to Oct. 15, 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.