Emerson Poll: Democrats Lead Congressional Ballot by 8 Points
By Insider NJ |
August 20, 2026, 7:52 am | in
News
A new Emerson College Polling survey of likely voters finds 40% approve of the job President Trump is doing in the Oval Office, while 56% disapprove. On the 2026 generic congressional ballot test, 51% support the Democratic candidate, while 43% support the Republican. Six percent are undecided.
“President Trump’s job approval has been relatively steady in the past several months, with about 2 in 5 likely voters approving of the President, driven by consistent ratings among Republicans, 86% of whom approve of the president,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “A majority of voters, 56%, disapprove of the job Trump is doing, including 66% of independents and 92% of Democrats. Men are now split: 48% approve and disapprove of the president, while women disapprove by a 30-point margin, 62% to 32%.”
The survey asked a series of hypothetical 2028 presidential matchups between the top two candidates in the Republican primary, JD Vance and Marco Rubio, and the top five polling Democratic primary candidates, Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom, Jon Ossoff, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Kamala Harris. Rubio performs better than Vance on multiple ballot tests, while Buttigieg, Ossoff, and Newsom perform strongest among the Democratic candidates.
Buttigieg is the only candidate to hold the same five-point lead against both Vance and Rubio, while Ossoff and Newsom’s leads tighten against Rubio, to 3 and 2 points respectively. Harris leads Vance by four points, but trails Rubio by five points.
Twenty-three percent of voters consider themselves supporters of the Democratic Socialists of America, 60% do not, and 17% are unsure. A version of this question was asked by CBS News in August 2010 among U.S. adults: 29% were supporters of the Tea Party movement, 54% were not supporters, and 17% were unsure.
“Forty-six percent of Democrats consider themselves DSA supporters, while 30% do not and 25% are not sure,” Kimball said. “This is concentrated among younger members of the party: 53% of Democrats under 50 support the DSA compared to 37% of Democrats over 50 who support.”
The economy is the top issue for 37% of voters, followed by threats to democracy at 16%, healthcare at 16%, and immigration at 13%.
Forty-nine percent of voters oppose U.S. military action in Iran, while 36% support it. Since March 2026, those who oppose military action in Iran increased two points, from 47% to 49%, while those who support it decreased four points, from 40% to 36%.
Seventeen percent of voters think the actions of the killer of the United Healthcare CEO are acceptable, while 72% think they are unacceptable. Eleven percent are neutral. The share of voters who find it acceptable has not changed since December 2024, when the question was asked following the assassination, while the number of those who think it is unacceptable increased four points, from 68% to 72%.
In December 2024, the poll found 41% of voters under 30 found the actions of the killer to be acceptable; this figure now sits at 39%.
