Democrats held a seven-point advantage before Tuesday’s midterm elections, down slightly from the nine-point lead seen in October, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday.
Fifty percent of likely voters said they would prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress compared with 43 percent who want Republicans to remain in charge, the poll found. Among a wider survey of registered voters, Democrats led by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent.
Democrats held a wide lead among blacks, Latinos, women, independents and voters between the ages of 18 and 34, the poll showed. Republicans led among voters ages 50 to 64, men, and whites, according to the poll.
Voters from both parties reported a record level of enthusiasm heading into the midterm election. Among all registered voters, 70 percent reported being highly interested in the election, up from 61 percent at the same point in 2006 and 2010.
Midterms are typically marked by low turnout, with older, white voters casting ballots in disproportionately high numbers. In that vein, 80 percent of seniors polled said they had a high interest in Tuesday’s election against 70 percent of all voters and just 50 percent of those ages 34 and below.
President Donald Trump’s approval rating among likely voters was 46 percent against 45 percent in October, the poll showed.
The survey was conducted Nov. 1-3 of 1,000 registered voters. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Among the 744 likely voters surveyed, the margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.