After weeks of record lows stretching back to late September, President Donald Trump's approval rating ticked up slightly, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The poll, released on Oct. 26, found Trump’s approval at 32%, up one percentage point from lastweek's Reuters/Ipsos tracking, when his approval rating hit a record low across his White House terms.
The modest rebound comes just over a week before the midterm elections, as Republicans continue to trail Democrats on the generic congressional ballot. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll gives Democrats an 11-point advantage, down 1 point from the previous week’s record high.
The stakes are high for the GOP: Losing control of either chamber of Congress could make it more difficult for Trump to advance
his agenda during his final two years in office.
The five-day Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,679 adults, with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
A struggling GOP
Despite the president's improvement, the Republican Party continues to struggle in various generic ballot polls ahead of the midterms.
Aside from the newest Reuters/Ipsos poll, the GOP trailed Democrats by double digits in a New York Times/Siena University poll released over the weekend. In that survey, Republicans trailed Democrats by 11 percentage points.
A similar Democratic advantage appears in other recent surveys, including a Focaldata/Financial Times poll released Sunday, Oct. 25, which showed the party leading the GOP by 9 percentage points.
According to VoteHub, Democrats have an 88% chance of winning the House of Representatives (projected to win 232 seats), with a 60% chance of retaking control of the Senate with 52 seats.
What do the polling averages say?
Trump's improvement contrasts with his broader decline across several polling averages.
As of Monday, Oct. 19, the RealClearPolitics average showed Trump with a 38.2% approval rating and a 60.3% disapproval rating. The New York Times polling average had Trump at 37% approval and 61% disapproval, while Nate Silver's Silver Bulletin average showed 37% approval and 60.2% disapproval.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump approval ticks up as GOP trails before midterms: poll
