A significant number of President Donald Trumpâs 2024 voters say they will not support a Republican candidate in the midterms, a damning poll has found.
The survey by Jared Abbott, director of the Center for Working-Class Politics, and scholar Joan C. Williams found that 20 percent of disgruntled Trump voters have decided to abandon the GOP in Novemberâs midterm elections.
The survey of 1,940 Trump voters also found that potentially 57 percent of key swing voters who previously supported Joe Biden but backed the Republican president in 2024 are also considering not voting GOP in the midterms.
In his analysis of the poll results, Abbott suggested it is ânot hard to see whyâ so many people are turning on Trump during his erratic second term, especially those who believed the 79-year-old would help end their financial hardships.
Trump has been recording dire approval ratings on the economy as he tries to suggest there is no cost-of-living crisis under his watch.
The presidentâs tariff plans and deeply unpopular war in Iran, which have sparked a global oil crisis and caused gas prices to soar in the U.S., have only further exacerbated the financial situation for tens of millions of struggling Americans.
âThese working-class voters (many of them self-identified moderates, former Democrats, and even some self-described liberals) took a gamble on Trump, hoping he would deliver them from an economic squeeze and restore some sense of social peace,â Abbott wrote in The Guardian.
âOne year on, he has not done so, and worse than that, heâs introduced a lot more chaos.â
The GOP, which has a razor-thin majority in the House, is already predicted to lose control over the lower chamber in November. Backlash against Trumpâs erratic second term could also put the Senate in play for Democrats.
Fears of an expected âblue waveâ in the midterm elections have already led to a record-breaking 36 Republican incumbents announcing they will not seek re-election this year.
In 2018, during Trumpâs first term, when 34 Republicans said they would not run again in that yearâs midterms, Democrats flipped the House in a 40-seat wave.
There was another alarming sign of just how bad the midterms could be for the GOP last month, when Democrat Emily Gregory pulled off a shock victory in a Florida special election for a district that includes Trumpâs Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach.
Gregoryâs predecessor, Republican Rep. Mike Caruso, had won by roughly 19 points in the 2024 election in the Palm Beach district, with Trump carrying it by 11 points in the last presidential race.
âIf Democrats can win in Trumpâs own backyard, we can win anywhere,â DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement following Gregoryâs victory. âTrumpâs own neighbors just sent a crystal clear message. They are furious and ready for change.â
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
