In the final polls before US midterm voting, Democrats led in five of seven Senate battlegrounds beyond what most polls treat as noise. Chosun Ilbo framed the shy Trump voter as the Republicans’ last hope, but how large any polling miss will be cannot be known until the votes are counted.
In a New York Times/Siena College survey of seven Senate battleground states, conducted October 23 to November 1 and released on the 2nd, Democrats led in Michigan, Texas, Maine, Ohio and Kansas. Michigan stood at Abdul El-Sayed 53%, Mike Rogers 42%, and Texas at James Talarico 50%, Ken Paxton 43%. Maine was Troy Jackson 51%, Susan Collins 45%, and Ohio Sherrod Brown 49%, Jon Husted 44%, according to Korea's Ajunews and Financial News.
광고 문의 · 300×250In Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton led incumbent Roger Marshall 49% to 44%, while Iowa and Alaska were separated by just one point each. Trump's job approval across the seven surveyed states was 38%. The Senate is now 53 Republicans to 47 Democrats, so Democrats must hold every seat they have and flip at least four Republican seats to take the majority.
Where the seven races are shifting
According to a roundup in Kyunghyang Shinmun, Maine is where major forecasters see the best Democratic chance. Collins, a centrist Republican, is seeking a fifth term, but Canada tariffs and higher heating-oil prices are cited as burdens on the local economy. In Texas, Talarico has led consistently in polling averages, and a win would give Democrats their first Texas senator in 38 years, since 1988.
Ohio carries symbolic weight as Vice President JD Vance's political base. The Kansas seat has been held by Republicans since 1919, and Democrats have not elected a senator there since 1932. In Michigan, the only seat Democrats now hold among the seven, Rep. Haley Stevens, who narrowly lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed, endorsed Rogers on the 1st, a late wild card. In Alaska, a Republican candidate sharing a name with incumbent Dan Sullivan is on the ballot, which has led to a legal fight.
Is the shy Trump voter real?
A ‘shy Trump’ voter is one who hides their preference from pollsters but backs Trump’s chosen candidate at the ballot box. Chosun Ilbo's November 3 headline said Republicans trail in all seven battlegrounds and can now rely only on that group. We found no confirmed figure for the size of such a group in the reporting reviewed.
Financial News reported that in the same survey, voters who made up their minds in the past month favored Republicans by 9 points. White working-class voters are often cited as a group where past polls diverged from actual results. Five of the seven states were won by Trump by double digits, so Republican turnout will matter. In Alaska, if no candidate clears a majority on first-choice votes, an extra count is set for the 18th with final certification on the 25th, so the Senate picture could take days to settle.