According to a new poll from Political IQ, a plurality of likely voters in Georgia believe it is important for the Republican Party to maintain control of the Senate and serve as a check on the incoming Democratic presidential administration. The survey was released a little more than a month before Georgia voters will decide two Senate runoff contests on January 5, determining whether Republicans keep the Senate majority next Congress.
Forty-six percent of the more than 1,300 respondents said they want the GOP to control the next Senate, while 42 percent said they want the Democratic Party to take control of the Senate and work with President-elect Joe Biden.
Seven percent of voters said it doesn’t matter which party controls the Senate, and 4 percent said they were unsure. The percentage of independents who believe it doesn’t matter which party is in the majority was far higher than the average voter. Fifteen percent of independent voters said it doesn’t matter, compared with 8 percent of Democrats and just 3 percent of Republicans.
The survey defined “likely voters” as anyone who said they were at least “somewhat likely” to vote. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said they’d “definitely” vote, 12 percent said they were ”very likely” to do so, and 8 percent said they were “somewhat likely” to vote.
The results suggest that GOP Senate candidates have a slight edge in turnout, at least now. Voters who said they’ll definitely vote split toward the GOP: Forty-nine percent said they want the GOP to control the Senate, while 41 said they want the Democratic Party to take over. Meanwhile, 84 percent of Republicans say they’d definitely vote, compared with 80 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of independents.