Voters are favoring the Republican approach to guns with the midterm elections just months away.
A new poll released Wednesday from Morning Consult and Politico finds 46 percent of registered voters surveyed said they trust Republicans in Congress to handle gun policy more than Democrats. 38 percent said they trust Democrats more, while 17 percent said they either did not know or had no opinion.
The seven-point advantage for Republicans remains firm heading into an election season where the party is poised to make big gains in both the House and the Senate. A similar Morning Consult poll from last November found that voters gave Republicans the same edge on gun policy.
Despite the Biden Administration’s recent attempts to insert itself more heavily into gun policy—largely through the actions of the ATF—he and fellow Democrats continue to face political headwinds on the issue. The recent influx of new gun owners over the last two years, potentially up to five percent of the adult population according to a recent University of Chicago survey, appear to oppose gun control just as much if not more so than previous owners. That could present an electoral advantage for Republicans on the issue in the near future.
Male voters were more likely than female voters to trust Republicans over Democrats on gun policy. 50 percent said they favored Republicans while 36 percent said they favored Democrats. Female voters were evenly split at 40 percent support for each party on the issue.
Republicans enjoyed a 15-point advantage among Independent voters on the issue with 41 percent saying they favored the GOP, compared with only 26 percent saying the same for Democrats. The poll did find sizable support for Democrats among young voters, aged 18-34, who said they preferred the party over Republicans by six points. However, every age group from 35 and up broke for the Republican party.
Beyond the issue of gun policy, Republicans enjoyed the most support on economic and national security issues. 46 percent of voters said they trusted Republicans more to handle inflation compared with 32 percent who said Democrats, representing the largest Republican advantage of all the issues polled.
Likewise, 48 percent of voters said they trusted Republicans more on matters of national security compared with only 35 percent who said the same for Democrats.
Congressional Democrats received the most support on health care issues and environmental concerns. The party enjoyed a comfortable 20-point advantage in trust over Republicans on the issue of climate change, the largest Democrat advantage of all issues polled.
The Morning Consult/Politico survey was conducted March 25-27, 2022, among a sample of 2,006 registered U.S. voters. It has a margin of error of +/- two percentage points.
