Democrats are far more motivated than Republicans for next year’s midterms, CNN poll finds
CNN
Next year’s midterm elections would seem to offer Democrats currently out of power a major opportunity: Americans have sharply negative views of the Republican Party and broadly believe GOP lawmakers don’t deserve to be re-elected, while Democratic voters are deeply motivated to go to the polls.
Democrats are far more energized than Republicans about participating in next year’s midterms, but deeply negative perceptions of the Democratic Party and its officeholders raise questions about the party’s ability to capitalize on that energy. Overall, 72% of Democrats and Democratic-aligned registered voters say they are extremely motivated to vote in next year’s congressional election, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. That outpaces by 10 points deep motivation among the same group just weeks before the 2024 presidential election and stands 22 points above the share of Republican and Republican-leaning voters who feel the same way now. But just 28% of Americans view the Democratic Party favorably, the lowest mark for Democrats in the history of CNN’s polling going back to 1992. Still, only 33% hold a favorable view of the Republican Party, which is the smallest share in CNN polling since just after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The poll suggests Democrats have a major opportunity next year – especially since midterms often favor the party out of power – but also a perception problem within their own ranks, particularly among younger voters. Among voters younger than 45 who align with the Democrats, just 52% say most Democratic members of Congress deserve reelection, and 48% say they do not. Older Democratic voters, by contrast, say these elected officials deserve another term by a wide margin, 76% to 24%. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans say most of the Democratic Party’s members of Congress do not deserve reelection and Democrats themselves are 7 points less likely than Republicans to believe members of Congress of their own party deserve reelection. Those historic lows on favorability are partly driven by Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents being less likely to have a favorable view of their own side (76% of Republican-aligned adults have a favorable view of the GOP, while just 58% on the Democratic side feel that way about their party).
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