The majority of voters say national Republicans haven’t made a strong enough case to earn midterm votes, according to a poll Tuesday that signals the GOP needs to fine-tune its strategy if it wants to take advantage of President Biden’s stumbles.
Pollsters at the Trafalgar Group said 56% of voters believe the GOP hasn’t made a strong enough case on why they deserve votes in November. A third of voters think Republicans have done enough, and 10% are not sure.
Notably, 57% of independents and a quarter of Republicans think the GOP hasn’t made its case to voters.
The poll was commissioned by the Convention of States Action, a conservative group, so it serves as a kind of wake-up call from an entity that would like to see GOP majorities in the House and Senate.
“Considering the failure of Afghanistan, inflation, student loans, the recession we are in, the attempted vaccine mandates, the border, and President Biden’s dark and dangerous speech recently, the Biden Administration has been a complete disaster, and his record low approval numbers show that. Logically, one would think that national Republicans would be riding high, able to take advantage of this situation to create momentum,” said Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States. “Yet, the fact is the feckless leadership, poor communication, and what appears to be a non-existent strategy is causing voters to say loud and clear: you need to try harder. If the GOP thinks they are just going to win this thing by not being Joe Biden, they are sorely mistaken.”
The survey was conducted Sept. 2-5 among more than 1,000 likely midterm voters. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
Political analysts say Republicans have a decent shot at retaking the House this year, though they might not swipe as many seats as initially thought.
The Senate is a rockier path for the GOP, with leaders quarreling over messaging and Republican leader Mitch McConnell openly fretting about the quality of party nominees in key contests.
The Senate is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tie-breaking vote for Democrats.