From The Editor Heather:

In its polling, Democracy Corps "uses the actual candidate names in each congressional race (and generic language in cases where there is no clear nominee), providing a level of specificity lacking from any other national measure of the congressional contest."

Here are the striking results:

• In contests where a Democratic incumbent is running for re-election (199 House seats in this database), the Democratic candidates enjoy a 26-point advantage and claim a strong majority of the votes (57 to 31 percent)
• In open seats with no incumbent running in this cycle (20 House seats), the Democratic advantage is even higher -- a remarkable 63 to 28 percent
• Most importantly, in races where a Republican incumbent is running for re-election (217 House seats), the Republican candidate leads by just 4 points (42 to 46 percent) and fails to claim majority support -- a sharp contrast from the strong position of Democratic incumbents