Democratic candidates are leading in five Republican-held US Senate races and are effectively tied in another ahead of the midterm elections, according to the latest New York Times/Siena University polls released Sunday.
The surveys, conducted across seven battleground states, found Democrats ahead in Texas, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, and Alaska, while the race in Iowa remains virtually tied.
In Michigan, the only Democratic-held Senate seat included in the surveys, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed leads Republican Mike Rogers by 11 percentage points.
According to The New York Times, Democrats need to defend their existing Senate seats and flip at least four Republican-held seats to secure a majority.
In Texas, Democratic state legislator James Talarico leads Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton 50% to 43%, despite the state not electing a Democratic senator since 1988.
In Kansas, which has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932, Democrat Adam Hamilton leads Republican Senator Roger Marshall 49% to 44%.
Former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown also leads Republican Senator Jon Husted 49% to 44% in Ohio.
In Maine, Democratic former state senator Troy Jackson leads Republican Senator Susan Collins 51% to 45%.
Meanwhile, Democrat Mary Peltola holds a narrow 48% to 46% advantage over Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in Alaska, while Democrat Josh Turek is effectively tied with Republican Ashley Hinson in Iowa.
The polls also revealed widespread dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump's handling of the economy, with only 38% of likely voters across the seven states approving of his job performance.
Democrats held a nine-point advantage over Republicans on handling the cost of living, leading on the issue in every state surveyed.
Democratic candidates also led among independent voters across all seven states, while the surveys indicated renewed support from younger and Latino voters.
However, voters who made their decisions during the past month favored Republicans by nine percentage points.
The polls showed Democratic candidates improving their positions in six states compared with September, while losing ground only in Alaska.
The surveys interviewed between 610 and 1,215 voters per state from Oct. 23 to Nov. 1.
Margins of sampling error among likely voters ranged from 3.3 percentage points in Texas to 4.8 points in Alaska.
