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As they handed control of Congress to Democrats on Tuesday, many voters said they viewed the midterm election as a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s performance, according to the NBC News Exit Poll.
Forty-three percent said one reason for their votes was to express opposition to Trump — higher than the share who said the same in the 2018 midterm election during his first term.
The results show that Trump’s midterm campaign blitz in support of Republican candidates in recent weeks has done little to lift his job approval rating.
Voters largely said they were unhappy about how things are going in the U.S. and disapproved of Trump’s handling of several key issues — with the economy being a big frustration.
Most said inflation is causing hardship for their families, identifying the affordability of gas, food and utilities as a significant concern. They blamed Trump for high prices and said his policies are making the economy worse.
A majority also objected to Trump’s immigration crackdown and the war in Iran, and expressed concern about government corruption and artificial intelligence.
Also coming in for criticism: Congress. A vast majority of voters said they did not like the job lawmakers were doing. That sentiment helped drive Democrats back into power in the Senate after a swift win in the House of Representatives, where they could end up with their largest majority in nearly two decades.
The exit poll was conducted as voters left polling locations across the U.S. on Election Day. Results also include extensive interviews by phone and mail and online with people who voted early or by mail.
Follow live updates on the midterm elections
Trump’s job approval rating among voters is lower than the rating of any sitting president on Election Day in nearly two decades, according to the poll.
Thirty-eight percent of voters said they approve of Trump’s performance. That’s substantially lower than in his first midterm election in 2018 (when 45% of voters approved of his performance).
Trump’s dismal approval ratings dropped in Senate battleground states, as well.
Majorities of Senate voters in Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and Texas all said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of his job — also up compared with 2018.
Voters expressed more unfavorable than favorable views of the Republican and Democratic parties, the poll showed. And almost 1 in 5 said they don’t have favorable opinions of either party — at least 5 percentage points more than the share who said so during the past two midterm elections.
Fifty-four percent of voters Tuesday said they have unfavorable views of the Democratic Party, while 46% have favorable views. For the Republican Party, 59% of voters today said they have unfavorable views, and 41% said they have favorable views.
Voters were likelier to say the Democratic Party could better handle several big issues than the Republican Party, including the economy, foreign policy, healthcare, government corruption and policies about transgender people. The GOP held an advantage on immigration.
On policies related to AI and taxes, voters were split.
The economy — once Trump’s strongest issue — is no longer viewed positively by voters, the poll showed.
An overwhelming majority said the nation’s economy is in rough shape (75%) — and 65% said Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the U.S. About half of voters casting ballots said the cost of living was crucial to their votes. That is the opposite of how voters viewed the economy in 2018 — a wave election for Democrats during Trump’s first term. That year, 68% of voters said the economy was in good shape.
The economy topped voters’ list of key issues, with 39% saying it was the most important issue facing the country today. The state of democracy was next, at 32%.
Voters voiced significant concerns about the prices of gas, groceries and utilities, blaming Trump for affordability problems.
Forty-four percent of voters said their finances are worse today than they were two years ago when Trump returned to office. Just 18% say they’re better off. These numbers are in line with the way voters characterized their finances during the 2022 midterms but much worse than in Trump’s first midterm election in 2018.
Driving voters’ financial concerns: the cost of living. Top issues include the cost of gas and diesel fuel (87% said they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned), food and groceries (88% concerned), utilities (86%) and healthcare (85%). All told, just under 8 in 10 voters said inflation is causing hardship for their families.
More than half (65%) say Trump’s policies have made the economy worse; 62% said he’s responsible for high prices.
And Republicans, overall, appear to have lost their advantage on the economy: 43% of voters said they trusted Democrats on the issue, while 38% preferred Republicans. That’s a flip from 2024, when Trump outpolled Kamala Harris on the economy by 7 points.
More than half of voters (57%) said Trump’s immigration enforcement actions have gone too far, according to the poll. Twenty-three percent said the crackdowns have been about right, and 21% said they have not gone far enough.
Government corruption was also a key issue. Ninety percent of voters said it was a crucial or major factor in their vote, but they were divided on which party was better positioned to fight it. Thirty-six percent said the Democratic Party, while 31% said Republicans. The remaining third of voters said they didn’t believe either party would be better.
The war in Iran was largely unpopular among voters. Sixty-two percent said the U.S. made the wrong decision in taking military action against Iran, including a large majority of voters who backed Democrats in the House.
Concerns about AI were also high on voters’ minds: 57% said AI will do more to hurt society than help, the poll showed. A large majority, 76%, said they opposed the construction of new data centers in their community. Voters split almost evenly on which party was better able to handle AI.
Amid their concerns, most voters said they were confident in how Tuesday’s elections were run. Seventy-one percent said they were confident about the fairness and accuracy of the elections in their states, and 59% said they were confident in how elections were conducted across the country.
Among the factors behind the shift from Trump and Republicans was the Latino vote, which moved to Democrats by a significant margin, according to the poll.
Two years ago, 51% of Latino voters supported Kamala Harris; on Tuesday, 60% of Latino voters backed Democrats running for the House. Republican House candidates won 35% of the Latino vote on Tuesday, compared to 46% who voted for Trump two years ago.
The share of Latino voters who identify as Democrats ticked up this year to 43% from 39% in 2024, the poll showed, reversing a decline that began in 2018. The share of Latino voters calling themselves independents dropped slightly, to 30% from 32%. The share identifying as Republicans also dropped slightly, to 27% from 29% in 2024.
Democrats’ advantage among Latino voters in party identification had narrowed from 33 points in 2018 to 10 points in 2024. This year, Democrats hold a 16-point edge.
Stephanie Perry is the manager of exit polling for NBC News.
Jon Schuppe is an enterprise reporter for NBC News, based in New York.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC