{"id":224878,"date":"2026-09-20T18:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/poll-most-voters-say-trump-has-hurt-the-economy-as-competitive-midterm-election-looms-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T18:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T18:00:21","slug":"poll-most-voters-say-trump-has-hurt-the-economy-as-competitive-midterm-election-looms-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/poll-most-voters-say-trump-has-hurt-the-economy-as-competitive-midterm-election-looms-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll: Most voters say Trump has hurt the economy as competitive midterm election looms – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump\u2019s sinking ratings threaten to drag down Republicans in November\u2019s midterm elections, as voters blame him for high prices and a shaky economy, according to a new NBC News poll<\/a>.
The president\u2019s approval rating stands at 41% among registered voters, a second-term low in the poll, with a majority (55%) of voters saying they believe Trump\u2019s policies have hurt the economy. That\u2019s up from 48% in March, before the Iran war pushed up prices on gas and other goods and cemented the rising cost of living as voters\u2019 most pressing issue.
Democrats hold a 5-point edge in the battle for control of Congress, 50%-45% \u2014 not nearly as large a lead as the 12-point advantage the party enjoyed at this point before the 2018 election, when Democrats rode an anti-Trump wave to the House majority in his first midterm as president. Despite that lead, the Democratic Party is still viewed more negatively than Trump and the GOP.
That could help Republicans, along with the fact that the fight for control of the House<\/a> and especially the Senate<\/a> is playing out in traditionally Republican parts of the country. Democrats would have to flip multiple states Trump carried by double digits in 2024 to win the Senate.
\u201cWe have a classic battle between these numbers and the political geography in which this campaign will be decided,\u201d said Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, whose firm conducted the survey alongside Democratic firm Hart Research Associates. \u201cAnd the Republicans are still standing because of the geography in which this election will be won or lost.\u201d
Still, the poll suggests an increasingly gloomy political environment for the GOP. Longtime double-digit leads over the Democratic Party on who would better handle inflation and the economy have evaporated. More than 6 in 10 voters say the Iran war has not been worth it. Voters don\u2019t appear to be motivated by Trump\u2019s signature tax and spending legislation he championed last year.
Instead, Trump himself is a powerful motivating factor, but more for Democrats than for Republicans, as more voters \u2014 including nearly half of independents \u2014 say they consider their vote a signal of opposition to the president than at any other time in three decades of NBC News polling before midterm elections.
\u201cDonald Trump has achieved his goal of making this election about him at a historic level. The problem for Trump and Republicans on the ballot in November is that he has also made history in the highest share of voters who say their vote is in opposition to Trump,\u201d said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.
Republicans on the campaign trail are trying to shore up their standing by arguing that Democrats are too extreme to trust with congressional majorities.
But the poll indicates voters are more anxious about restraining Trump: 50% say they\u2019re more concerned that Republicans will go too far in supporting Trump if they keep control of Congress, while 42% are more concerned Democrats will obstruct the president if they win control of Congress. Independents lean 45%-30% toward greater concern that Republicans will go too far supporting Trump.
McInturff acknowledged the challenges for the GOP posed by the political environment, even as the party\u2019s geographic advantages keep Democrats fighting on their turf.
\u201cThe issue environment is tilting substantially towards the Democrats,\u201d McInturff said.
A majority of voters, 56%, disapprove of Trump\u2019s job performance, including overwhelming shares of Democrats and independents and 16% of Republicans. The share of voters who strongly approve of Trump, 25%, is the second-lowest mark recorded in the NBC News poll across Trump\u2019s first and second terms.
The disapproval rating closely tracks the 55% who say Trump\u2019s policies have hurt the economy, while 26% say they have helped and 18% say they have not made much of a difference. At this point in the 2018 election cycle, more voters said Trump\u2019s policies helped the economy (41%) than hurt (26%).
And the survey suggests some of Trump\u2019s signature economic policies are falling flat.
While Republicans are touting Trump\u2019s signature tax cut and spending measure known as the \u201cbig, beautiful bill,\u201d which was enacted in 2025, 42% of voters say they are less likely to support a candidate backing the measure, while 36% say they are more likely to support such a candidate.
Trump\u2019s latest gambit \u2014 an announcement at the recent Republican convention that he wanted to issue $5,000 payments to every adult if Republicans keep control of Congress \u2014 isn\u2019t garnering much interest. While 21% of voters say they\u2019re more likely to back a candidate who supports Trump\u2019s plan, 46% say they\u2019d be less likely.
A plurality of Republicans say it would make no difference in their vote choice, while Democrats are uniformly against the idea and 45% of independents would be less likely to support a candidate in favor of the plan. Among independents, 13% say they\u2019d be more likely to support a candidate who backs Trump\u2019s plan.
Voters are also continuing to express opposition to the Iran war, with 57% saying they are less likely to support a candidate who supports the war, versus 24% who are more likely to support that candidate. One-third of voters say the war has been worth it, while 62% disagree.
And Democrats also have a 4-point advantage, within the poll\u2019s margin of error, on the question of which party voters say they trust to handle the war with Iran.
Trump has continued to insert himself into the midterms, including endorsing nearly all Republicans in competitive congressional races. But 52% of voters are less likely to support a candidate endorsed by Trump, while 30% are more likely to support a Trump-backed candidate.
Clear dissatisfaction with the president opens the door for Democrats as they fight for control of Congress this fall.
Forty-three percent of registered voters say their vote for Congress is intended to signal opposition to Trump, while 27% say they plan to vote to send a signal of support for Trump and 28% say their vote won\u2019t be a signal either way.
Among independents, almost half (46%) see their vote as a signal of opposition to Trump, while just a handful (10%) say their vote is a signal of support for the president.
Democrats have a 1-point lead when voters are asked which party they trust more in dealing with the economy \u2014 a result within the poll\u2019s margin of error. It\u2019s the third consecutive NBC News poll with both parties sitting about even on that question. In the same survey just three years ago, Republicans enjoyed a 21-point advantage when it came to handling the economy.
Democrats also have a 7-point edge on controlling inflation, as well as slight leads on dealing with the war in Iran and dealing with corruption \u2014 government corruption was the second-most popular choice when voters were asked to rank the most important issue facing the country, with concern about the issue heightened among members of both parties and independents.
The Democratic Party also has double-digit leads on dealing with data centers and dealing with healthcare.
Republicans still hold significant advantages over Democrats on handling crime, border security and immigration, including a 21-point lead on border security. But that is down from the 36-point edge the GOP held over Democrats on the issue in Sept. 2022, after Trump has made aggressive immigration enforcement a hallmark of his second term.
Democrats also have a narrow lead on interest in the election, as well as among party identification. But it\u2019s not all rosy for the opposition party.
The Republican Party is viewed more positively by voters: 36% have a positive view of the GOP, while 49% view the party negatively. On the Democratic Party, voters are split 29%-50%.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Socialists of America is viewed positively by 22% of voters, as Republicans try to link other Democrats to the left-wing group, which rose in prominence following some major primary wins in the past two years.
One poll respondent \u2014 Aidan Valenzuela, a 19-year-old Texan who doesn\u2019t affiliate with either party \u2014 told NBC News that he hasn\u2019t plugged into the election yet and is still unsure whom he\u2019ll vote for. But he said his father grew up during the Cold War and that he\u2019s wary of Democrats who describe themselves as democratic socialists.
\u201cAny relation toward socialism or communism in general gives me the ick. It\u2019s like a buzzword that generally just makes me not want to sway in that direction,\u201d he said.
Half of voters say they\u2019d be less likely to vote for a candidate who \u201csupports many of the Democratic Socialists of America\u2019s proposed policies,\u201d while 31% say they\u2019d be more likely to support those kinds of candidates.
Candidates calling to abolish ICE, a big point of emphasis among progressives, draw similarly unpopular scores with voters.
That said, for all the Democratic infighting over policies like \u201cMedicare for All,\u201d 53% of voters say they would be more likely to support a candidate who favors the policy, while 36% said it would make them less likely to vote for that candidate.
When asked a similar question with slightly different wording to note the healthcare would be financed in part by taxes, 49% say they\u2019d be more likely to support a candidate that backed the policy and 39% say they\u2019d be less likely.
Horwitt, the Democratic pollster, noted that his party \u201cremains in a terrible position as a brand nationally,\u201d even as the poll paints a dismal picture for Trump and Republicans.
\u201cThis speaks more to deep dissatisfaction with Trump and Republicans than a ringing endorsement of Democrats,\u201d he said. \u201cThe party in power does not have a positive story to tell on the major issues of the day: inflation, corruption and the Iran war. Voters are continuing to look for change.\u201d
The NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters Sept. 11-15 via a mix of telephone interviews and an online survey sent via text message. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.<\/em>
Ben Kamisar is a national political reporter for NBC News
Bridget Bowman is a national political reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePresident Donald Trump\u2019s sinking ratings threaten to drag down Republicans in November\u2019s midterm elections, as voters blame him for high prices and a shaky economy, according to a new NBC News poll.The president\u2019s approval rating stands at 41% among registered voters, a second-term low in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}