Republicans maintain a 5-point lead in a generic congressional ballot in their bid to hold a narrow House majority, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Wednesday.
If congressional elections were held today, 48% of likely voters said they would vote for the Republican candidate and 43% for the Democrat, according to the survey. That margin is unchanged since May, when Republicans led 47% to 42%, Rasmussen said.
Driving the advantage for Republicans is a 19-point lead among independents. Exactly half of independents surveyed said they would vote for the GOP candidate while 31% said Democrat, according to the poll; 19% said "some other candidate" or "not sure."
Men favor Republicans 51% to 43% while the gap among women is a virtual tie, with 45% of women surveyed saying they would vote Republican and 44% said Democrat, according to Rasmussen's poll.
Republicans also held a 5-point lead on the generic ballot in the final poll before the 2022 midterms, which ended up netting them nine seats in the House to earn a 222-213 majority.
Rasmussen surveyed 1,142 likely voters on Aug. 15 and Aug. 18-19. The margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.