--- title: Midterm Election Poll: Democrats Edging Out Republicans description: Voter sentiment is leaning in the Democrats' favor for the 2018 midterm election following the first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency canonical: https://time.com/4753364/poll-voters-democrats-congress-2018-elections/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-24T22:21:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:15.500Z article:section: Politics og:title: Poll: 47% of Voters Want Congress to Be Controlled by Democrats og:description: After President Donald Trump's rocky first days in office og:url: https://time.com/4753364/poll-voters-democrats-congress-2018-elections/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56bd0a82fd67bf89/6988ca69196cf4402d03fcfe/democrats-republican-congress-midterm-election-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: democrats republican congress midterm election poll og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Poll: 47% of Voters Want Congress to Be Controlled by Democrats twitter:description: After President Donald Trump's rocky first days in office twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56bd0a82fd67bf89/6988ca69196cf4402d03fcfe/democrats-republican-congress-midterm-election-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Poll: 47% of Voters Want Congress to Be Controlled by Democrats > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Apr 24, 2017 10:21 PM UTC  A campaign sign for Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is seen among other candidates' signs as he runs for Georgia's 6th Congressional District in a special election to replace Tom Price, who is now the secretary of Health and Human Services on April 16, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. A campaign sign for Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is seen among other candidates' signs as he runs for Georgia's 6th Congressional District in a special election to replace Tom Price, who is now the secretary of Health and Human Services on April 16, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. Joe Raedle—Getty Images  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Apr 24, 2017 10:21 PM UTC Voter sentiment is [leaning in the Democrats’ favor](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/despite-trump-s-low-numbers-dem-surge-no-guarantee-n750386) for the 2018 midterm election following the [first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency](http://time.com/4751730/donald-trump-100-days-approval-ratings/), [a new poll found](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/despite-trump-s-low-numbers-dem-surge-no-guarantee-n750386). Of registered voters, 47% said they would prefer to see Democrats emerge from the 2018 midterm elections in control of Congress, compared to 43% who said the same about Republicans. Candidates from the left have already performed [better than thought possible](http://time.com/4737967/new-generation-democratic-candidates/) in special elections for traditionally Republican [districts in Kansas](http://time.com/4735661/kansas-election-ron-estes/) and [Georgia](http://time.com/4745779/georgia-congress-election-jon-ossoff/), though poll results this far in advance of midterms are not “consistently accurate predictors” of the election outcomes, according to NBC News, which conducted the poll with the Wall Street _Journal._ Perceptions of Democrats are also better than the GOP, with 34% of respondents viewing the party positively and 39% viewing it negatively, compared to 31% of people viewing Republicans positively and 47% negatively — showing that poor opinions of both parties outweigh support. “I’m not sure any of these results make it great to be anything,” one of the survey’s pollsters Fred Yang [told NBC](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/despite-trump-s-low-numbers-dem-surge-no-guarantee-n750386). “But I think it’s great right now not to be a Republican.” The poll surveyed 900 people from April 17 to 20\. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. \[[_NBC_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/despite-trump-s-low-numbers-dem-surge-no-guarantee-n750386)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4753364/poll-voters-democrats-congress-2018-elections/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4753364/poll-voters-democrats-congress-2018-elections/"},"headline":"Poll: 47% of Voters Want Congress to Be Controlled by Democrats","datePublished":"2017-04-24T22:21:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:15.500Z","description":"After President Donald Trump's rocky first days in office","url":"https://time.com/4753364/poll-voters-democrats-congress-2018-elections/","keywords":["Congress","2016 Election","politics","White House","Poll","Donald Trump","onetime","2018 Elections"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56bd0a82fd67bf89/6988ca69196cf4402d03fcfe/democrats-republican-congress-midterm-election-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56bd0a82fd67bf89/6988ca69196cf4402d03fcfe/democrats-republican-congress-midterm-election-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"democrats republican congress midterm election poll","caption":"democrats republican congress midterm election poll","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4753364/poll-voters-democrats-congress-2018-elections/","name":"Poll: 47% of Voters Want Congress to Be Controlled by Democrats"}}]}] ```