U.S. Satisfaction Shows Modest Improvement

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After Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. dipped to near-historical lows in June and July as gas prices soared, it has now returned to where it was in April. Currently, 21% of U.S. adults say they are satisfied, an increase from 13% in both June and July.

The Sept. 1-16 poll finds 79% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going, after more than eight in 10 were dissatisfied each month between May and August. CONTINUED

Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup

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Pennsylvania: Fetterman Leads Oz in U.S. Senate Race, Shapiro Outpaces Mastriano in Governor’s Race

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In the race for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman has a 10-point lead over Mehmet Oz among registered voters statewide. Fetterman’s lead narrows to 7 points among those who say they definitely plan to vote. In the governor’s race, Democrat Josh Shapiro is ahead of Republican Doug Mastriano by double-digits among registered voters. Shapiro also has a strong advantage among those who say they definitely plan to vote.

When thinking about midterm elections, 40% of Pennsylvania adults say inflation is the issue that is top of mind. Preserving democracy (29%), abortion (16%), immigration (7%), and health care (7%) follow. …

President Joe Biden’s job approval rating in the state is upside down. 42% of Pennsylvanians approve to 52% who disapprove. CONTINUED

Marist College Institute for Public Opinion

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Recent Congressional Approval Trending Higher

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Approval of Congress, which has been trending higher since August, is now 23%, its highest point in 2022. Still, roughly six weeks before the midterm elections, the vast majority of Americans — 75% — disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.

Americans’ approval of the Democratic-controlled 117th Congress peaked at 36% in March 2021 and hit its lowest point — 16% — in June. However, several legislative victories for Democrats in late July and early August seemingly led to an uptick in approval of Congress — to 22% in an August Gallup poll. Approval remains at that level in Gallup’s Sept. 1-16 poll. CONTINUED

Megan Brenan, Gallup

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4 charts that show the GOP’s 2022 popularity gap

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A month ago, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said out loud what many Republicans were undoubtedly feeling. Effectively, the message was: We’ve got a shot at a good 2022 midterm election, but some of these Trump candidates could screw it all up for us.

At the time, there was evidence of a GOP candidate problem — especially in the lagging poll numbers of some key Senate candidates.

Today, there’s considerably more.

An increase in public polling at the tail end of the primary season reinforces McConnell’s point — and not just in the races he and others might have had in mind. While it doesn’t count the GOP out of potentially winning the House and Senate and some key governor’s races, candidate popularity presents a significant and unnecessary hurdle in what should, historically speaking, be a good election for Republicans. CONTINUED

Aaron Blake, Washington Post

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Why Stacey Abrams is a clear underdog in Georgia

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The 2022 elections are, so far, shaping up to be better than Democrats had imagined. They’re now favored to hold the Senate, and they appear likely to keep their losses in the House below the historical midterm average for the party that controls the White House.

They also seem to be doing fairly well in gubernatorial elections. In the six states that President Joe Biden won by less than 5 points in 2020 and that are also holding governor’s races this year, Democrats either hold a clear advantage (Michigan and Pennsylvania) or are in toss-up contests (Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin) in five of them.

The exception is Georgia, where Democratic hero Stacey Abrams is making her second bid for governor. CONTINUED

Harry Enten, CNN

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Migration declines worsen worker shortages, inflation

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… In 2015 and 2016, the United States saw a net international migration gain of more than 1 million people. It dipped to about 930,000 in 2017 and dropped to just over 700,000 in 2018. By 2020, the year of the pandemic’s arrival, it was under 500,000. And last year, the figure dropped to about 247,000.

That’s a massive and sudden decline that, among other things, subtracted a lot of potential workers from the U.S. economy and it was bound to have ripple effects. Some of those impacts were masked by the disruptions of the pandemic, when businesses were shuttered and unemployment rates spiked.

But one of the primary hallmarks of the rebooting U.S. economy has been a worker shortage, a plethora of “help wanted” signs in the windows of retailers, restaurants and other businesses in communities across the country. CONTINUED

Dante Chinni, NBC News

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