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Most American voters trust congressional Republicans more than Democrats to handle issues such as the economy, inflation, and immigration, a new Wall Street Journal poll found.
The poll also discovered that 63% of respondents have unfavorable views of the Democratic Party, which is the highest amount since 1990. Only 33% have favorable views, creating a 30-point gap between the disparate views on the party. By contrast, while voters also say they have more unfavorable than favorable views of the Republican Party, the gap between those who approve and disapprove is only 11 points.
According to the Journal, while respondents generally disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of several issues that are normally deciding factors in elections, they still prefer that congressional Republicans take charge of the same issues rather than have Democrats handle them.
“In some cases, the disparities are striking,” the Journal reported. “Disapproval of Trump’s handling of inflation outweighs approval by 11 points, and yet the GOP is trusted more than Democrats to handle inflation by 10 points. By 17 points, voters disapprove rather than approve of Trump’s handling of tariffs, and yet Republicans are trusted more than Democrats on the issue by 7 points.”
The Journal uncovered similar trends when looking at immigration and illegal immigration, with voters 17 percentage points more likely to want congressional Republicans to handle immigration and 24 percentage points more likely to want them to deal with illegal immigration. Respondents only preferred congressional Democrats on two issues: health care and vaccine policy.
The Journal reported that Democrats will attempt to mobilize voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections by holding angry town hall meetings this summer, hoping to win back control of the House of Representatives. The strategy worked in 2018, one year into Trump’s first presidential term, but, as the Journal noted, statistics show a different political environment in his second term. Now, more voters identify as Republican than as Democrat; only a fraction more voters say they would back a Democrat for Congress than those who say they would back a Republican; and Trump’s job approval rating, 46%, is higher than it was during the first year of his previous term.
