ABC News Poll: Trump’s Approval Up, But Dems Poised to Take House

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll indicates Democrats are still favored to win back the House this November. The survey also showed a 5 percent approval boost for President Donald Trump since late August.

Forty-one percent of registered voters approve of the way Trump is doing his job, up from 36 percent. Trump, though, has the lowest approval rating for a president heading into his first midterm election since Harry Truman in 1946 – Truman’s party lost 54 House seats. Among registered voters, Democratic candidates for the House lead Republicans, 53-42 percent.

Democrats need to flip 23 seats to take control of the House, and most polls suggest they should be able to pull off the feat. The ABC/Washington Post survey found the public to side more with Democrats on a range of issues, including health care (53-35 percent trust Democrats more than Republicans), handling the “equal treatment of men and women in U.S. society” (55-29), immigration (50-38) and Supreme Court nominations (49-38) and trust to change the way Washington works (45-35).The poll also found:

• 45 percent trust Republicans to handle the economy, compared to 41 percent for Democrats
• Trump has the highest approval rating of his career for handling the economy, 49 percent to 46 percent
• Women who are registered to vote support Democratic candidates, 59-37 percent, while men split almost evenly, 46-48 percent
• Seventy percent of women say it’s more important to them to vote this year than in past midterms, compared to 62 percent of men who say so
• Fewer registered voters say they would rather see Democrats win control of the House to act as a check on Trump – now 54 percent compared to 60 percent in late August.

The poll, conducted by Langer Research Associates of New York, is based on telephone interviews with 1,144 randomly chosen registered voters from Oct. 8-11. The poll has a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points for the full sample.