A new poll shows that Democrats have an early lead in next year’s battle for control of Congress amid an ongoing government shutdown. Background in the data shows a majority of voters believe "President Donald Trump has not lived up to their expectations" on several major issues.
According to a new national NBC News poll, around two-thirds of registered voters say the Trump administration has fallen short on two things that helped to usher him into the White House: the economy and the cost of living. And then there's to promise to 'drain the swamp,' where a majority say he’s fallen short on changing business as usual in Washington.
A poll by CNN found similar results, with Trump’s approval rating at 37%, the worst of his second term in CNN polling and roughly equivalent to his 36% approval rating at this point in his first term. His disapproval rating, at 63%, is the highest of either term, and it's one point above the previous high of 62% as he was leaving office in January 2021.
"In a midterm election year, though, views of the president can outweigh perceptions of the opposition party," CNN reported.
Respondents to the NBC poll were also more likely to blame the GOP than the Dems for the ongoing government shutdown. The survey, conducted Oct. 24-28, finds a combined 52% of voters blame Trump and congressional Republicans, while 42% blame Democrats in Congress.
But it's not all sunshine and roses for the Dems, who are trying to claw back some governmental control. The same poll showed the Democratic Party suffers from low ratings from voters as it seeks to offer a clear alternative in policy and leadership. Notably, pollsters at Jacobin delved even deeper into sentiment about Democrats in the Midwest and discovered that candidates described as Democrats performed 10 to 16 points worse in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio than otherwise identical independents delivering the same pitch. Pennsylvania was the lone outlier where this “Democratic penalty” did not appear. "The drag was largest among working-class, Latino, and rural/small-town respondents — precisely the blocs Democrats must win to carry the key working-class-heavy battleground states."
“With these numbers, the Democratic Party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted,” Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, told NBC. He conducted the survey along with GOP pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
Meanwhile, NBC poll participants reported that protecting democracy and constitutional rights is a top issue for them, alongside the economy, and a majority of respondents said they believe Trump has done more to undermine the Constitution than defend it.