Republicans seemed so close to a massive midterm victory in 2022. Then the reality of their anti-abortion ideology started to drop. Now, Democrats are gaining ground again, and the outcome of this November's election seems much less clear.
With gas prices high, inflation still rising, and Democrats still tainted by bad COVID policy, polls in late 2021 and the first half of 2022 showed American swing voters leaning heavily Republican. For instance, Gallup polling on independent voters found Democrats' nine-point advantage over Republicans at the start of 2021 shifted to a five-point Republican advantage by the end of the year. In March, independents surveyed by The Wall Street Journal favored Republicans by 12 percentage points, and 46 percent of respondents overall said they would back a Republican candidate for Congress, while only 41 percent would back a Democrat. And in a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll conducted in April, 47 percent of respondents said they would vote for a Republican candidate if the election were held then, compared to just 44 percent who favored Democrats. "Republicans have strong support among independents who break toward the GOP by 7 points, and only one in 10 say they're still undecided on which party to support," PBS reported.
