This new Monmouth poll will have Republicans panicking
A new nationwide Monmouth University poll released Wednesday does not have a lot of good news for Republicans. Perhaps most stunning are the results of a generic 2018 House ballot, where Democrats hold a 15-point edge on the GOP. Overall, 51 percent of registered voters said that if the election was held today, they'd vote or lean toward voting for the Democrat in the race. Just 36 percent of voters said they'd vote or lean toward voting for the Republican.
Politico's Jake Sherman offered some insight on just how significant that chasm is:
A 15-point gap. Republicans were freaking out at 7 points. https://t.co/YUCCPqW9ED
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 13, 2017
The director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, Patrick Murray, said there could be even more bad news for Republicans due to President Trump's approval rating hitting its lowest number since he took office. "Republicans have to be worried about being dragged down by the weight of Trump's negatives in 2018 if this trend continues," Murray said. Overall, Trump's approval rating is a mere 32 percent, while 56 percent of Americans disapprove:
George W. Bush did not reach 32% until mid-2006, bloodiest months of sectarian violence in Iraq - and 6 months before GOP lost both houses of Congress https://t.co/zZaS3p6G0w
— David Frum (@davidfrum) December 13, 2017
The numbers out of Monmouth don't appear to be a fluke. Pew also recorded Trump at his lowest approval rating ever last week. Additionally, Suffolk University found that among Fox News watchers, Trump has plummeted from a 90 percent approval rating in January to a mere 58 approval rating in December.
Read the full results of the Monmouth poll here. It reached 806 adults in the U.S. between Dec. 10-12, and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.