AP-NORC Midterm Poll: 47% Want Democrats to Control the House and 46% the Senate; Trump Approval at 36%
WASHINGTON — Nearly half of U.S. voters would like Democrats to take control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections, according to a midterm survey released October 15 by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: 47% favor Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives and 46% favor Democratic control of the Senate, compared with 38% who would prefer Republicans to remain in charge of both chambers, while 15% are unsure. The poll was conducted October 8-12, less than four weeks before Election Day.
Overall, 36% of voters approve of how President Donald Trump is handling his job, while 64% disapprove. About three quarters disapprove of his handling of the economy (74%) and 79% disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, while about two-thirds disapprove of his handling of foreign policy. Crime remains one of his stronger issues, with 45% approving. About a third of voters have a favorable opinion of Trump (35%), Vice President JD Vance (35%) and the Republican Party (36%), while four in 10 have a favorable view of the Democratic Party.
Economic concerns top the issue list: 85% of voters say the economy is among the most important issues in their vote, 84% say the same about the cost of living, 69% cite health care, 64% cite the war with Iran, and 45% cite immigration and crime, while 35% cite super intelligence. About 8 in 10 voters say the country needs substantial change or complete and total upheaval in how it is run. Two-thirds feel pessimistic about the state of U.S. politics, only 1 in 10 say they feel optimistic, and half are pessimistic about the future of both parties and of democracy as a whole.
According to the Associated Press, about three-quarters of Democratic voters say voting in this November's midterm elections is "extremely" important, compared with roughly 6 in 10 Republicans; overall, about two-thirds of registered voters call voting "extremely" important. Republicans have controlled both chambers of Congress for the past two years, and the election will decide all House seats and part of the Senate.
The nationwide poll was conducted October 8-12, 2026, using the AmeriSpeak Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews were conducted with 1,119 adults, including 925 registered voters. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points, and the margin of error for registered voters is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. AP-NORC released the findings on October 15.
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Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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