Polls Under Fire | Mike Johnson Says GOP Turnout Could Surprise On Tuesday
Republicans hoping to stave off historical trends and an unfavorable political environment are facing a challenging road ahead as they face an enthusiasm gap and growing frustrations with their handling of the issues voters are prioritizing.
With just days left until Election Day, both parties are making their final pitch to voters that will decide control of Congress. Public opinion polling has highlighted a favorable environment for Democrats, who are finding themselves in competitive races in increasingly Republican-leaning states.
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AI GeneratedMay contain errors
Mark, thank you. This morning reports continue to show polls
are way off with the media's political headlines as major news
organizations raise concerns about their own polling numbers
and Republican leaders urge GOP voters to get out and vote.
The election day now just a day away.
Questions about who's responding to these surveys are raising some new
uncertainty about how accurately these polls reflect the electorate.
The National News Desk's Matt Galka
joins us from Washington with more on this.
Matt, good morning to you.
Why are these final polling numbers
drawing so much attention?
Well, good morning. The final polls ahead
of the midterms were released over the weekend.
Many major outlets had polls showing Democrats ahead
in almost every major Senate battleground heading into Tuesday.
The Washington Post had Democrat Adam Hamilton
leading Republican Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas,
but the Post released more info on that poll out of transparency.
The outlet said Democrats were more eager
to talk to them in the state for that poll.
Leading them to question if the Democrats' response had
been overestimated for that final survey.
Republicans have been harder to talk to, according to the outlet.
Registered Democrats were more than twice as likely to respond.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been critical of the polls,
insisting Republicans can defy the historical trend
that often works against the president's party in the midterms.
I have been all over the country, my friends,
and I'm feeling really good right now.
I'm telling you, the polls are wrong, okay?
We're going to defy history,
and we are going to be celebrating big victories on Tuesday night.
That's my prediction, okay? Amen.
It's a spiritual battle, yes, ma'am.
The New York Times also admitted it was easier to get
in touch with some Democrats over Republicans.
Registered white Democrats were about 30% more likely
to respond to surveys than white Republicans.
Now, the Washington Post didn't find
the same amount of difficulty in every state.
They published some other results.
In Maine, Republicans were within about 4%
of Democrats responding to the poll there.
And in Michigan, the poll estimated they had talked
to more Republicans over Democrats for those results.
Now, polling overall has been harder and harder to nail down,
especially in the last 10 years or so,
where there have been some pretty big whiffs
that have made people more skeptical in general
about the pre-election results that they're seeing.
Reporting in Washington, I'm Matt Gelko
for the National News Desk, America's News Now.