This new CNN poll is the best news yet for Democrats looking to 2018
Democrats hoping for a great blue wave in 2018 just got a bit of good Christmas tidings. A generic-ballot poll conducted by SSRS for CNN and released Wednesday shows Democrats holding their biggest polling lead yet, with 56 percent of registered voters saying they'd favor the generic Democrat in their district and just 38 percent saying they'd favor the Republican in next year's midterms.
Not only that, but CNN's numbers also found that voters who favor Democrats are more enthusiastic about voting in 2018 than are voters who lean right. Just 32 percent of GOP-leaning registered voters said they were either extremely or very enthusiastic about casting their ballot, compared to 48 percent of Democratic-leaning voters.
The last time CNN asked registered voters about a generic-ballot congressional race, the Democrats' lead was just 11 percent. And Wednesday's 18-point advantage is an increase even from the day's other good news for the Democrats: An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released earlier Wednesday found voters favoring a generic Democrat over President Trump in a hypothetical 2020 presidential race by a 16-point margin.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Overall, the RealClearPolitics average of generic 2018 polls shows Democrats with a 12.5-point advantage over Republicans.
CNN's poll sampled 1,001 adults over the phone via live interviewer. It was conducted between Dec. 14-17 and has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points. See the full results here.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
-
Pushing for peace: is Trump appeasing Moscow?In Depth European leaders succeeded in bringing themselves in from the cold and softening Moscow’s terms, but Kyiv still faces an unenviable choice
-
Sudoku medium: November 29, 2025The daily medium sudoku puzzle from The Week
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
