Trump Approval Rating Holds at 32 Percent, Near a Record Low, in the Final Reuters/Ipsos Poll Before Election Day

HOUSTON - President Donald Trump's approval rating held near a record low on the eve of the midterm elections, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday, as a broad swath of the electorate told pollsters it sees Tuesday's congressional vote as a way to oppose him.

Some 32 percent of respondents said they approved of the job Trump is doing in the White House, unchanged from a week earlier and just above the record-low reading of 31 percent in the same poll two weeks ago. The five-day nationwide survey was conducted online among 1,765 U.S. adults and carries a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

The generic congressional ballot tightened in the final week. Some 46 percent of registered voters said they would pick Democrats in congressional elections, compared with 38 percent who picked Republicans - an 8-point Democratic advantage, narrower than the 11-point lead Democrats held in the Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted a week earlier.

The president himself is the ballot's central figure for many voters. Among registered voters, 50 percent of independents said they saw their vote in the congressional elections as a vote against Trump, compared with 13 percent who said it was a vote for him and 33 percent who said the president was not a factor in their vote.

Reuters notes that generic-ballot polls provide a view of national public sentiment but do not capture the nuances of the state-by-state and district-by-district contests that determine control of the Senate and the House - contests in which Republicans hold some structural advantages. In Texas, Harris County voters decide on Tuesday in a Senate race and a full slate of House contests that will help settle both majorities.