WASHINGTON (AP) — After more than a decade with Donald Trump at the epicenter of U.S. politics, most voters appear exhausted and exasperated by him, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of midterm voters in all 50 states.
The president’s failure to deliver on key promises — most prominently, his vows to tame inflation, which has worsened instead — clearly weighed on his fellow Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections for the House and the Senate.
The polling shows that voters generally saw Trump as being more focused on his own fortune and gold-leafed existence than their needs.
The president also helped elevate candidates with obvious flaws, amplifying their struggles in an already challenging year. He suggested in a Tuesday evening interview with Fox News Channel that Democrats “fought hard” and that the Republican base “didn’t like the candidates” he had endorsed because some of his picks were not fully loyal to him.
But the poll also contains a serious note of caution for Democrats. Many voters dislike the party — and while Democrats hold an advantage on key issues such as the economy, their edge is relatively slim. About 7 in 10 voters said Congress is not doing enough to provide checks and balances for the president, setting the bar for Democrats who won back the Senate and the House.
It was impossible for GOP candidates to hide from inflation. Voters could see it clearly in their receipts from grocery stores and gasoline stations. The financial blow of an auto repair or a utility bill after a sweltering summer was inescapable. And even in Republican strongholds such as Texas, the drag caused by inflation helped Democrats.
About 2 in 10 Texas voters said inflation had imposed “severe” hardship on them and their family — and about three-quarters of this group backed Democrat James Talarico for the Senate. An additional 6 in 10 voters, roughly, said inflation had led to “moderate” hardship, and Talarico won the majority of these voters, too.
That same pattern repeated in state after state. Nationally, voters who said they were “very concerned” about everyday costs — including groceries, healthcare and gas — overwhelmingly said they voted for the Democratic candidate in their local U.S. House race.
But it wasn’t just the inflation itself that mattered. Voters nationwide pinned the blame on Trump for his tariffs, his war in Iran and his unfulfilled campaign promise two years ago to bring down prices.
Asked about the impact of Trump’s policies, about two-thirds of voters nationwide said they had made the economy worse. And out of this group, about 8 in 10 said they backed the Democratic candidate.
More than half of voters nationally said government corruption was “crucial” for their vote for Congress. That was a little higher than the share who said the cost of living was “crucial,” a striking finding in a year when about 6 in 10 voters said they were personally “very concerned” about the cost of food and groceries.
Meanwhile, despite Republicans’ suggestion that voters cared little about Trump making more than $1 billion last year from meme coins and cryptocurrency, most voters saw Trump as obsessed with his own interests. During his second term, Trump solicited donations from powerful companies to build his desired White House ballroom after having surprised the country by rapidly demolishing what had been the building’s East Wing.
That tenor set at the top spilled over into business deals for his family and other deals by his associates involving pardons and federal policies.
Ultimately, about two-thirds of voters said Trump does not have the right priorities — and the overwhelming majority of these voters supported Democratic House candidates.
For much of the past two years, Trump acted on his own.
Much of the Republican-controlled House and Senate barely objected to his whims. He laid off federal workers, imposed sweeping new tariffs, launched the war with Iran, remodeled Washington in gold paint, threatened the Federal Reserve, the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution and bullied a bevy of longtime allies.
Voters made it clear that they want more congressional oversight.
About 7 in 10 voters said Congress was not doing enough to provide checks and balances for the presidency, including about 4 in 10 Republicans.
Despite Democrats’ victories, voters did not deliver a ringing endorsement of the party as a whole. Many voters expressed frustration with both parties: On the economy, foreign policy, healthcare, taxes and immigration, roughly 2 in 10 voters said “neither” party was better equipped to handle these issues. An even larger share of voters said neither party would be better at addressing government corruption or artificial intelligence.
Those skeptical voters generally broke for Democrats.
But it wasn’t because the party was overwhelmingly popular. Only about half of voters had a “somewhat” or “strongly” favorable view of the Democratic Party. That was higher than the approximately 4 in 10 who viewed the GOP positively, but not by much. About 2 in 10 voters who supported Democratic candidates had a negative view of the party as a whole.
Instead, in key races, voters seemed to be looking to Democratic candidates for change. In Maine, for instance, most voters who said having a candidate with “the right experience” mattered most to their Senate decision chose Republican incumbent Susan Collins. But more voters cared about bringing about “needed change,” and they favored Democrat Troy Jackson.
Trump endorsed Republicans who turned off voters — and that put areas that were once safely with the GOP at risk.
After Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina died in July, the president chose the late senator’s sister, Darline Graham, to fill his seat. The new Sen. Graham then promptly decided to seek election and struggled on foreign policy questions that were once her brother’s forte.
About 6 in 10 voters in the South Carolina Senate race said she lacked the experience to serve in the Senate.
During the Texas Republican primary, Trump ultimately backed the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, over its sitting senator, John Cornyn. Paxton was scandal-ridden and had been impeached but not convicted. About two-thirds of Texas Senate voters said he lacked the character to be a senator.
The president prized loyalty in Republican candidates. That hurt Republican candidates in many states.
In North Carolina, as in several other states, about 6 in 10 voters said the state's Republican Senate nominee, Michael Whatley, was “too supportive” of Trump. They chose former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, for the Senate instead.
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The AP Voter Poll is a survey of the American electorate conducted by SSRS for The Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, FOX News Media, NBC News and Versant. The survey blends probability-based and non-probability-based interviews with registered voters in all 50 states conducted from Oct. 19 to Nov. 3 in Alaska and Oct. 22 to Nov. 3 in all other states. A detailed methodology statement is available. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 0.6 percentage points for the full sample.
