President Donald Trump wants supporters to pretend he’s on the ballot come November, but new polling shows he’s toxic for Republicans heading into the midterms.
In a major put-down for the president, voters trusted Democrats over Republicans to address two key issues that propelled Trump to the White House in 2024—immigration and the economy.
The latest New York Times poll, released Tuesday, found that far more likely voters plan to vote for a candidate who would keep Trump in check than to support him.
49 percent want candidates to rein in the president, while just 26 percent want candidates who support Trump. Only 21 percent said it did not matter.
The polling was conducted September 8 through 13, as the president and Republicans were partying in Dallas after Trump demanded a convention to rally his supporters, but most GOP lawmakers stayed away.
Among Independent voters who will help decide the midterms, 59 percent want candidates who will check Trump, while just 13 percent want ones who would support him.
If the midterms were held today, 51 percent said they would vote for a Democratic candidate to represent their district versus 43 percent who said they would vote for a Republican candidate.
It’s the latest in a series of polls showing Democrats with momentum heading into the midterms as Trump weighs down the GOP. His low approval remains at just 38 percent among likely voters.
Democrats were trusted more than Republicans on nearly every issue with less than 50 days to go before Election Day.
Voters said they believed Democrats would do a better job handling the economy, foreign wars, and immigration, by seven points over Republicans. They had an eight-point edge on handling the cost of living and a 24-point lead on handling health care, where they had their greatest advantage.
Democrats need to flip less than a handful of seats to take control of the House, where Republicans currently hold 218 seats to Democrats’ 214.
They also need just four seats to flip the Senate and are becoming increasingly confident they can do so, despite the map running through a series of states Trump won, including Ohio, North Carolina and Alaska.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) on Tuesday added three more candidates to its “Red to Blue” program, where the Democratic campaign arm puts more money and resources toward their races. The seats include independent candidate Bill Hill, who is running for the at-large House seat representing Alaska; Will Lawrence, who is running for Michigan’s 7th district; and Mitchell Berman, who is running for Wisconsin’s 1st district.
