SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
One week out from Election Day, Democrats appear to be maintaining their momentum in the race for Congress. That is according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll out today. NPR political reporter Elena Moore has been talking with some of the voters who took part in the survey and joins us now to give us a rundown. Hey, Elena.
ELENA MOORE, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So what do you find most striking about this poll?
MOORE: Well, Democrats have a pretty solid lead. When likely voters were asked whether they'd rather vote for a generic Democrat or a generic Republican candidate, Democrats were up by eight points. Enthusiasm is also pretty high. Seventy-one percent of Democratic voters say they're very enthusiastic about voting versus 61% of Republicans. And voters are fired up. Chris Agan is a 43-year-old Democrat in Texas. He told me he never really saw himself as an impassioned midterm voter in the past, but that's changed.
CHRIS AGAN: This year is different. This year, it feels like every opportunity to vote is a referendum against the party in power.
MOORE: And Texas is one of a handful of states with toss-up Senate races. Agan says he's going to support Democrat James Talarico in that race over Republican Ken Paxton.
DETROW: One of the themes of this campaign is that President Trump keeps telling supporters to pretend that he is on the ballot.
MOORE: Right.
DETROW: I'm curious - what do we learn from this poll about how much he's really on voters' minds?
MOORE: Yeah. Well, all year, we've been talking with voters who feel strained by rising costs and say they aren't happy with some of the administration's economic policies, right? And I heard that again from poll respondents I talked to. And that broader frustration is backed up in this poll, with 6 in 10 likely voters saying they disapprove or strongly disapprove of Trump's job in office. Plus, Scott, 44% view their vote this year as a vote against the president.
DETROW: So does that frustration automatically translate into Democratic votes?
MOORE: Well, I think the thing about this poll, that's a good reminder, is that you can be upset about the state of things and also unhappy with the other side as well. You know, Matthew Schroder feels that way. He's a 38-year-old independent voter in North Carolina. He told me he backed Joe Biden in 2020 and then Trump in 2024 and says he's disappointed with Trump's job performance, but that's not what's driving his vote. Instead, he's concerned about the rise of Democratic socialist candidates. And it's part of what's making him, you know, feel pushed away from supporting the Democratic candidate in North Carolina for Senate.
MATTHEW SCHRODER: I know Roy Cooper is considered a moderate, but the fact that the Democratic Party is even letting some of these voices be heard a little bit more is not something I'm interested in, in the least. So because of that, it's not a vote of yes for Trump as much as a vote of Democrats need to go a completely different direction.
MOORE: So Schroder is backing Republican Michael Whatley in the Senate race there.
DETROW: So that's one voter who is concerned about the DSA, which, of course, won a lot of high-profile primaries in the Democratic Party this year. What are some other obstacles Democrats might be facing with swing state voters?
MOORE: Well, at the start, you know, we talked about enthusiasm and how Democrats, overall, do have an advantage there. But if you look a little more closely, there are key parts of their coalition that don't feel as enthused - four big ones, Scott - independents, non-white voters, young voters and white women with college degrees. This is, of course, just one metric. Overall, Democrats are favored to flip the House and see winning the Senate as a possibility, something that seemed, like, far less likely even a few months ago. So there may very well be a blue wave, so to speak, but the size of that wave is unclear. You know, Scott, this may be a surfboard situation or just a boogie board situation. We'll know more in seven days.
DETROW: That is NPR political reporter Elena Moore. Thank you.
MOORE: Thanks.
DETROW: And if you want to hear more of NPR's political analysis, you can find all of our election coverage in one place on the 2026 election tab on the NPR app. Find it at npr.org/2026election. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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