Gallup released polling that shows Congressional Democrats with their lowest approval rating ever recorded, although higher than Congressional Republicans, while the public expressed greater trust in the Republicans' ability to handle national security and economic issues than in the Democrats'.
Congressional Democrats have just a 28 percent approval rating, which broke their record-low of 30 percent in December 2007. Republicans in Congress have an even lower approval rating of 26 percent. Those statistics flip when Gallup polls the approval ratings of each party as a whole. Republicans have a 43 percent approval rating compared to 42 for the Democrats, and a 53 percent disapproval rating compared to 55 percent for the Democrats.
The most important election cycle statistic comes from polling of how the public views the parties on specific issues, as Republicans have signficantly higher numbers than the Democrats. 49 percent of respondents believe that Republicans will "do a better of protecting the country" from national security threats, with just 38 percent prefering the Democrats. On economic issues, the 48 percent believe the Republicans will be better at "keeping the country prosperous." Only 39 percent will say that of Democrats. You can see the polling data below.
Here are the results from the issue polling:
Here's the Democratic favorability chart:
Here's the Republican favorability chart:
