Poll Finds GOP Holds ‘Near-Historic’ Lead on Massive Question As Midterms Near

If you’ve been feeling like the energy ahead of the midterms is drifting toward Republicans again, you may not just be imagining it.

CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten highlighted yet another data point that appears to be some pretty bad news for Democrats.

In an article titled, “Republicans hold a near-historic lead on a key midterm indicator,” published on Tuesday, Enten noted a “recently released Gallup poll on who Americans think can better handle the issue that is most important to them.”

The survey is kind of odd in that it is open-ended, so respondents can list any issue as the most important one to them — whether it is inflation, crime, abortion, or some other topic.

It then asks respondents which party they believe can best handle the issue most important to them.

The poll found that 48% of respondents say Republicans are best equipped to handle their top issues, while 37% said the same of Democrats.

“This 11-point Republican edge is one of the best they have ever had. Looking at 20 midterm elections since 1946 when this question was asked, only once has the Republican Party had a larger advantage on this question. That was in 1946 when Republicans had a 17 point lead on the Democrats,” Enten explained.

He went on, “Republicans had a net gain of 55 House seats in the 1946 election. And while the correlation is far from perfect (+0.7 on a scale of -1 to 1) between House seats won by the Republican Party and how they stood against the Democrats on the most important issue question, it is very much existent.”