US voters faced a midterm election that could decide control of Congress and whether Democrats would seek a third impeachment of Donald Trump, as he has warned. Only 32 percent of voters approved of Trump’s job performance in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.
According to the poll, Trump’s approval rating has fallen steadily, particularly since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28. The war has driven up petrol and diesel prices, while 78 percent of voters said the rising cost of living would be very important or the most important issue in deciding their vote.
Trump had spent nearly a month campaigning for Republican candidates before the November 3 midterms. He ended that effort on Monday afternoon with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC.
The setting offered its own awkward backdrop. The pool’s renovation ran months late and cost more than 10 times its original estimate. A special liner Trump had promoted peeled away soon after it was installed.
“It was a work of art that never worked, but now it will work,” Trump told the rally.
Trump has repeatedly urged supporters to treat their ballot as a vote for him personally. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was completed on Monday, before Tuesday’s congressional midterm elections.
Its findings pointed to a difficult political climate for the president. His 32 percent approval rating was close to his record low of 31 percent, recorded two weeks earlier. In the generic ballot question, 46 percent of respondents preferred a Democrat and 38 percent a Republican. Democrats had led Republicans by 11 points in the equivalent Reuters/Ipsos poll a week earlier.
Voters also gave Democrats an advantage on the cost of living, choosing them over Republicans by 43 percent to 32 percent. Among independents, 50 percent described their congressional vote as a vote against Trump, while 13 percent called it a vote for him.
Democratic voters reported greater enthusiasm. Forty-nine percent said they were ‘very enthusiastic’ about voting this year, compared with 33 percent of Republican voters.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,765 US adults online and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Comments (0)