Congressional Republicans are favored over Democrats to better handle most major issues, according to voters in a poll published by The Wall Street Journal.

The survey found voters favor the GOP to handle border security by a 28-point margin, 48% to 20%, over Democrats, while Republicans also held an 11-point advantage on immigration.

This came despite Democrats holding a 47% to 43% edge over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot and only 45% of voters approving of President Donald Trump’s job performance, with 54% disapproving.

The Democratic Party is contending with a badly tarnished image, making it difficult to capitalize on any GOP weakness, according to the poll, with about 58% of voters holding an unfavorable view of the party, compared with 39% who view it favorably. This compares with negative views of the Republican Party outweighing positive ones by an 11-point margin.

Other results from the survey include:

-Respondents gave Republicans an edge on the economy and inflation (both +6), tariffs (+2), foreign policy (+5) and the Russia-Ukraine War (+4).

-Democrats held an advantages on vaccine policy (+9) and healthcare (+15).

-Support for Trump among his most loyal supporters remains resilient, with 92% of voters who backed him in 2024 giving him a positive job rating today, including 70% who "strongly approve." 

The Wall Street Journal survey was conducted Jan. 8-13 and included 1,500 registered voters. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.