Raymond La Raja, political science and associate director of the UMass Poll, is quoted in a story about Democrats trying to hold on to their majorities in the House and Senate after the midterm elections. The president’s unpopularity creates an even more challenging environment, the article states. “Approval numbers help you gain power within the beltway, people are less willing to screw with you if you have high approval numbers,” La Raja says. “People want to get on the bandwagon when they think you're a popular president, they're more likely to negotiate with you so within governing itself, it matters.” (WCHS-TV [Charleston, W.V.], 10/27/22)

A UMass poll finding that a majority of voters oppose impeachment of President Joe Biden is mentioned in a New York Times story about Republican Party leaders beginning to equivocate about the issue in the leadup to election day. “Pressed recently on whether Mr. Biden or any officials in his administration deserved to be impeached, [minority leader Kevin McCarthy] said, ‘I don’t see it before me right now,’” the article states. “The response reflected an awareness that impeachment — as commonplace as it has become — is deeply unpopular. A national University of Massachusetts Amherst poll released in May showed that 66% of voters oppose impeachment, including 44% who said they strongly oppose the move.” ( NY Times,10/28/22; News Office release)

As the nation approaches the 2022 midterm elections, American voters expressed fear, anger and a great deal of worry in a new national UMass Amherst Poll, the results of which were released Oct. 21. Nearly three-quarters of Democratic voters (74%) and 65% of Republican voters said that they will be angry – and three-quarters of both party’s voters said they will be afraid – if the opposing party takes control of Congress, the poll of 1,000 respondents found. “As each national election has increasingly been viewed by the public as a zero-sum affair, in which one party wins and another loses, and as candidates on both sides of the partisan divide tout each election as the ‘most important of our lifetimes,’ it is no shock that majorities of both Democratic and Republican voters express fear and anger if the opposing party takes control of the U.S. Congress,” says Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science and Director of the UMass Poll. (WCVB-TV 5 Boston, 10/21/22; News Office release )

Jesse Rhodes, Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the UMass Poll, is quoted in an article examining the potential long-term impact of the January 6 Committee. “It’s evident that the investigations are making people aware of the threats to our democracy, and they are eroding Donald Trump’s brand and enthusiasm for him,” Rhodes says. (The Kansas City Star, Miami Herald, The Wichita Eagle [all via The Hill] 10/25/22)