WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Democrats are hopeful a wave election will help them retake control of Congress this fall, but the results of new Axios/SurveyMonkey polls suggest they are likely to have difficulty flipping the Senate.
The polls found that Republicans would win five of the ten Senate seats Democrats are defending in states that President Donald Trump won in 2016.
Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., are seen as the most vulnerable Democrats.
Manchin and Tester are trailing generic Republican candidates in the polls, and McCaskill trails Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley.
Trump's approval rating in all three states is also well above 50 percent, while the approval ratings for Manchin, Tester, and McCaskill are either below or just above 50 percent.
The polls also showed Senators Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., trailing generic Republican candidates.
Meanwhile, Senators Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have narrow leads over generic Republican candidates, and Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio., leads Congressman Jim Renacci, R-Ohio, by 50 percent to 45 percent.
Senators Bob Casey, D-Penn., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also have significant leads over Congressman Lou Barletta, R-Penn., and Governor Rick Scott, respectively.
Axios noted the numbers are likely to change, as the elections are months away and the final Republican candidates have not been set in several of the races.
The Axios/SurveyMonkey polls of a total of 17,289 registered voters living in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia, Montana, and North Dakota were conducted February 12th through March 5th.
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