Poll: Republicans Hold 8-Point Lead Over Democrats in US 2022 Midterm Elections

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Republican candidates hold an eight-point lead over their Democratic rivals in terms of current voter preference for the upcoming 2022 midterm elections, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday.

When asked which party’s candidate they would vote for if elections were held today, 48% of likely US voters replied in favor of the Republican and 40% in favor of the Democrat, the poll found.

Another 4% said they would vote for another party’s candidate and the remaining 8% were not sure, according to the poll.

The poll surveyed 2,000 likely US voters between July 5-7 and has a sampling error of +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

The Republican lead is attributable to their greater partisan intensity and a 12-point advantage among independent voters, according to the poll. Just 79% of Democrats would vote for their candidate in comparison to 88% of Republicans who would vote for theirs, the poll found.

Democratic support is highest among government employees and people with annual incomes over $200,000, the polling data showed. Republicans conversely lead by 10 percentage points among those in the $30,000-$50,000 annual income bracket and among private sector workers, according to the poll.

However, the divide between male and female support for the Republican Party widened from a seven-point gap to a nine-point gap, with 53% of men more likely to prefer Republicans compared to 44% of women, the poll also found.