Democrats close enthusiasm gap with Republicans heading into midterms: poll

Democrats and Republicans are nearly even in their motivation to vote ahead of the midterms, new polling shows.

A Morning Consult-Politico survey published on Tuesday found that slightly over half of those surveyed in both parties reported feeling extremely or very enthusiastic about voting in November’s midterms: 56 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans.

The new results show a shrinking gap between the parties’ enthusiasm ahead of the midterms after Republicans held the lead for much of this year. 

A mid-April poll found Republicans were more enthusiastic than their Democratic counterparts by 13 points. In late July, they polled 9 points higher, and a survey released earlier in September had them in the lead by 4 percentage points.

Democratic enthusiasm appears to have jumped in June after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which has been cited as a major motivator to vote for some Democrats and the inspiration for a surge in women registering to vote.

The shrinking enthusiasm gap coincides with a bump President Biden is receiving in public approval polls.

Biden’s approval rating has been climbing back from record lows earlier this year. The latest Morning Consult-Politico survey showed the president with 46 percent approval and 53 percent disapproval among likely voters.

This puts Biden up nearly 10 points since he logged an anemic 39 percent approval rating in June.

Democrats overall have been polling ahead of Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, according to Morning Consult and a recent Wall Street Journal survey. That could signal a momentum shift for the party as the midterm election approaches.

The voter enthusiasm survey is conducted weekly among representative samples of about 2,000 registered voters, and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Biden’s approval rating comes from 3-day moving averages of representative samples of nearly 8,000 registered voters, and has an unweighted margin of error of 1 percentage point.