Republicans get major warning sign from young voters: Poll

The majority of young Republicans aren’t exactly counting down the days until the upcoming midterm elections, according to a new CNN poll.

While voters’ views of Democratic and Republican parties remain largely unenthusiastic, liberal and progressive candidates may benefit at the polls on November 3 thanks to support from so-called “double haters”—Americans who aren’t impressed with either faction, according to CNN’s poll released Friday.

Roughly one-quarter of Americans hold a shoddy outlook on both parties, but voters among that group prefer the Democrats in the upcoming midterms by 31 points, the survey revealed.

Why It Matters

The survey comes as President Donald Trump‘s approval rating is tumbling, particularly among Republicans and Gen Z voters. Forty-three percent of respondents approve of the job he’s doing in the White House, compared to 53 percent who disapprove, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris survey.

Trump’s approval among GOP respondents fell to 79 percent, down from 85 percent in February, while support among 18- to 24-year-olds dipped to 25 percent from 38 percent.

Just 51 percent of men approved of Trump’s job performance, while 59 of women disapproved, reflecting a deep gender divide. Voters under 35 were also largely negative, while approval was split evenly among older groups, the survey found.

“The ultimate poll was November 5, 2024, when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Newsweek in a statement.

What To Know

Young conservative voters—a bloc that helped Trump regain the White House in 2024—are especially disengaged from the upcoming election, according to CNN’s poll. Just 33 percent of Republican and conservative votes under 45 say they’re extremely motivated to head to the polls, compared to a majority of older Republicans.

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, appears to have more internal dissension than GOP counterparts, but liberal-leaning registered voters are more motivated to back candidates—17 points higher than Republicans despite being less likely (14 points) to hold a favorable view of their own party, according to the poll, which was conducted online by research firm SSRS from March 26 through 30.

The survey, which randomly polled 1,201 adults, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. Overall, respondents said by a 6-point margin that they’d prefer a Democrat over a Republican candidate if the elections for Congress were held today, CNN reported.

Fifty-seven percent of the most motivated voters said they plan to support Democrats, compared to 38 percent for Republicans, reflecting a similar split previously revealed in January.

When it comes to “double haters,” their most common reasons for disliking Democrats are viewing them as do-nothing (22 percent), saying they’re not standing up enough to Trump and the GOP (11 percent) or they’re too liberal (10 percent), CNN’s poll showed. Meanwhile, another 9 percent call them “weak” or “spineless,” with the same percentage saying the Democratic Party doesn’t care about people.

As for the GOP, “double haters'” most common reason for disliking them is what they see as the party’s failure to stand up to Trump (14 percent), followed by a sense the party doesn’t care about people (10 percent), views about Trump more generally (8 percent), and a perception of the party as corrupt (8 percent).