Poll: Voters Flee Democrats, Flock to GOP

A new Gallup poll found that voters were abandoning the Democrat Party in droves. In the final quarter of 2021, 47 percent of Americans identified themselves as Republicans and just 42 percent called themselves Democrats. The five point advantage is the largest GOP margin since 1995.

NPR: A new Gallup analysis examined how Americans’ partisan preferences shifted over the course of the year 2021, with findings that indicate momentum for Republicans heading into this midterm election year. . . When the year was broken down into quarters, there was a discernible shift. In the first quarter of 2021, Democrats had a 9-point advantage over Republicans, but by the final quarter of the year that had shifted sharply to a 5-point Republican advantage, according to Gallup’s aggregate data. . .

Party identification trends can often be strong indicators of how a party will fare in House elections. And most in Washington already predict a bleak outcome for Democrats in November, in both the House and the Senate.

The 14-point swing in favor of Republicans is the largest shift measured since Gallup began asking the question 30 years ago. The shift in party preferences is “likely tied” to Joe Biden’s collapsing approval rating, which hit a new low of just 33 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll.

Democrats are already panicking about drastic losses in this year’s midterm elections. Bernie Sanders said his party’s strategy is “failing” and Illinois Democrat Rep. Cheri Bustos warned that her party needs a “reset”.

New York Times: With the White House legislative agenda in shambles less than a year before the midterm elections, Democrats are sounding alarms that their party could face even deeper losses than anticipated without a major shift in strategy led by the president. . .

Democrats already anticipated a difficult midterm climate, given that the party in power historically loses seats during a president’s first term. But the party’s struggle to act on its biggest legislative priorities has rattled lawmakers and strategists, who fear their candidates will be left combating the perception that Democrats failed to deliver on President Biden’s central campaign promise of rebooting a broken Washington.

Bottom Line: After a disastrous first year for the Biden-Harris administration, the data shows voters are abandoning Democrats. Republicans have clear momentum heading into the midterms and are well-positioned to retake one or both chambers of Congress.