Democrats Ahead of Republicans in Midterms Voting Intentions

President Trump will deliver his State of the Union address this evening, in front of a deeply divided country. The President is expected to defend his agenda and outline a roadmap for the year to come, ahead of the midterm election which will take place in November.

According to data from a recent Economist/YouGov poll, Democrats currently lead voting intentions for the midterms by 7 percentage points, with 47 percent of those surveyed saying they would vote for a Democratic candidate if the election took place today. Unsurprisingly, voting followed the partisan divide, but 97 percent of Democrats say they would vote for Democratic candidates, more than the 89 percent of Republicans who say they would vote for Republican candidates.

Democrats also lead 52 percent to 41 percent among voters who follow what's going on in government and public affairs most of the time, and they have a 5 percentage point lead among voters who only follow the news some of the time. Republicans have a short 2-point lead among those who say they only rarely keep up to date with the country's affairs. YouGov points out that significant shares of Republican-leaning registered voters say they wouldn't vote or aren't sure how they would vote, especially among those who don't closely follow the news, while the vast majority of Democratic-leaning registered voters say they would vote for Democratic candidates.