voters who haven't yet settled on a candidate in the presidential election are more republican-leaning as a group than democratic, suggesting that gop nominee donald trump can make last-minute gains if he can persuade those voters to return to their home party. some 30% of undecided voters call themselves republicans, compared with 21% who call themselves democrats, an analysis of wall street journal/nbc news national polling shows. in another sign of the republican tilt of undecided voters, some 42% of those voters say they want the next congress to be controlled by the gop, suggesting that they are republicans at heart. some 35% say they prefer democratic control. those numbers also mark a reversal from 2012, when democrats in the pool of undecided voters outnumbered republicans by 12 percentage points and a plurality wanted to see a democratic-led congress. <u+201c>unlike 2012, when undecided voters were breaking for president obama, the `juice<u+2019> in the undecided vote this year is favoring republicans,<u+2019><u+2019> said micah roberts, a republican pollster who works on journal/nbc news surveys. the analysis looked at journal/nbc news polls conducted in early- and mid-october, before the federal bureau of investigation announced friday that it was<u+00a0>reviewing new evidence in connection with its investigation of hillary clinton <u+2019>s use of a private email server. the agency had closed the investigation this summer without recommending charges against mrs. clinton or her aides. some 8% of registered voters remain undecided in the presidential race, according to the analysis. with mr. trump trailing in most national polls, those voters could help mr. trump narrow the gap with mrs. clinton. should the profile of undecided voters in individual states mirror the national picture, mr. roberts said, <u+201c>there<u+2019>s a chance<u+2026>that some of the battleground states could end up being closer than the polling today suggests, if these voters actually go out and vote.<u+201d> that is a significant caveat: only 42% of undecided voters rate themselves as highly interested in the election, suggesting it will take a push from the trump campaign or another force to push them to vote. by comparison, about 72% of voters overall rate themselves as highly interested in the election. the undecided pool includes voters such as<u+00a0>phyllis<u+00a0>and larry de camp of perry township, ohio, about an hour<u+2019>s drive south of cleveland. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t remember any year that i was so undecided on who i would vote for,<u+2019><u+2019> said mr. de camp, a retired grocery chain manager who is 79 years old. mr. and mrs. de camp were so indecisive that when their absentee ballots arrived, they laid them on a<u+00a0>table alongside a bottle of jameson whiskey and a gallon jug of wine. then, they posed for a photo with the tableau. the photo was meant to show, in jest, that their presidential decision was driving them to drink. they posted it online with the caption: <u+201c>now, what do we do?<u+201d> mrs. de camp, 69, who had backed president barack obama in the last election, finally made a decision after consulting her grown sons: she marked her ballot for mr. trump. mr. de camp, who backed the gop nominee in 2012, hadn<u+2019>t yet filled out his ballot as of late last week. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s still sitting on the table,<u+201d> he said. the analysis of journal/nbc news polls looked at interviews with 1,900 registered voters from surveys conducted in early- and mid-october. it compared them with surveys of 1,800 voters conducted just before the 2012 election. corrections & amplifications: <u+201c>unlike 2012, when undecided voters were breaking for president obama, the <u+2018>juice<u+2019> in the undecided vote this year is favoring republicans,<u+201d> said micah roberts, a republican pollster who works on journal/nbc news surveys. an earlier version of this article incorrectly said the undecided vote is favoring democrats this year. (oct. 30, 2016) write to aaron zitner at aaron.zitner@dowjones.com
trump stands to benefit from high number of republican-leaning undecided voters - wsj
aaron zitner