78% of Capitol Hill staffers believe that House Republicans are on track to reclaim the house majority in 2022, according to a new poll.
Capitol Hill staffers were asked a series of questions, gauging congressional support for President Biden’s agenda and individual issues such as gun control in a new Punchbowl News poll. While responses to individual issue questions fell down partisan lines, 78% of respondents indicated they believe the GOP will control the House of Representatives after the 2022 midterm elections.
Seventy-eight percent of senior Capitol Hill aides believe the Republicans will regain the House in 2022, according to a poll from Punchbowl#RepublicanParty #HouseOfRepresentatives #Nrcc #NancyPelosi #PunchbowlNews https://t.co/68tJGzWEam
— H24 News US (@h24news_us) June 8, 2021
The poll surveyed 158 staffers serving as chiefs of staff, legislative directors, press secretaries and communications directors to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The partisan breakdown of the survey was fairly even with 80 respondents identifying as Democratic staffers and 78 respondents identifying as Republican staffers, according to Punchbowl. (RELATED: ‘REPORT: ‘A Gift To Putin”: GOP House Members Rip Biden For Scrapping Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Sanctions’)
Respondents also gave their predictions on which party will control the Senate, with 70% of respondents indicating their belief that Democrats will control the Senate after the 2022 midterm elections.
Apart from predictions on election outcomes, a majority of congressional staffers (57%) indicated that the GOP’s decision to oust Republican Representative Liz Cheney as Chair of the House Republican Conference made the party weaker and that progressive proposals such as election reform will likely fail (70%).
Staffers surveyed listed China, infrastructure and technology regulation as the three areas with the most bipartisan agreement amongst members of Congress. Taxes, election reform and DC statehood were listed as the issues with least agreement, according to Punchbowl’s poll.
Republican staffers listed Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity as the most influential voices outside of elected officials in the Republican Party, while Democratic staffers listed former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow as the most influential voices outside of elected officials in the Democratic Party.
Punchbowl’s poll was conducted between May 11 and May 28.