A new CNN poll reveals how people mad at both parties see the midterms

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, Jennifer Agiesta, CNN

(CNN) — Americans’ views of both the Democratic and Republican parties remain deeply negative, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. And in an election year that may turn on which party voters see as the lesser of two evils, the Democrats hold an early advantage.

About one-quarter of the public holds a negative view of both parties – so-called double haters. Voters in that group prefer the Democrats in the upcoming midterms by 31 points.

In an era characterized by negativity toward all sides in Washington, the voting patterns and preferences of people who have negative feelings toward both Democrats and Republicans can play a key role in elections.

Those voters who had unfavorable views of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton proved decisive in the 2016 election and broke in Trump’s favor again in 2024. In the 2022 election, when both parties were viewed negatively by just over half of all voters, “double-hater” voters broke in Republicans’ favor by a wide margin, according to CNN exit polls.

The vote preferences of the current crop of double haters are driven more by opposition to the GOP rather than enthusiasm for the Democrats.

Just 28% of Americans hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party, with the Republican Party a few points higher at 32%, in large part because Republicans take a more positive view of their own party than do Democrats.

Compared to the midterms in President Donald Trump’s first term, both the president and the Democrats have grown less popular. While Trump’s 35% approval rating is 7 points lower than it was at this point in the 2018 midterm cycle, the Democratic Party’s net favorability has shifted from about even then to net negative by nearly 30 points now. Ratings for the GOP were deeply underwater in both years.

Overall, registered voters say by a 6-point margin that they’d prefer the Democratic Party’s candidate over the Republican candidate if the elections for Congress were held today.

The most motivated voters break 57% for the Democrats to 38% for the Republicans on the generic ballot; it was a similar 56% Democrats to 41% Republicans among that group in January.

What do double haters hate?

When asked what they most dislike about each party, double haters offer different reasons for their dissatisfaction with each. Their most common reasons for disliking Democrats are viewing them as do-nothing (22% say this), saying they’re not standing up enough to Trump and the GOP (11%) or they’re too liberal (10%). Another 9% call them weak or spineless, with another 9% saying the party doesn’t care about people.

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

“There is such a divide and no one can compromise to get anything done,” wrote an independent who answered the survey. “They act like spoiled brats.”

Democrats have an advantage with their base

The Democratic Party faces greater internal discontent and dissension than the GOP, but also a clear advantage in motivating its base and an ability to capitalize on anti-Trump sentiments.

Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters are 17 points likelier than those aligned with the GOP to describe themselves as extremely motivated to vote even as they’re 14 points less likely to hold a favorable view of their own party.

Democrats’ overall advantage in motivation and on the generic ballot, which has remained relatively stable in recent polling, also match a trend in midterm politics that predates Trump: Voters tend to swing against the party in power, particularly when the occupant of the White House is as unpopular as Trump currently is.

More than three-quarters of voters who plan to support the Democrats in the midterms see their vote as a message of opposition to Trump, while only about half who plan to vote Republican say they’ll do so as a way to show support for the president. That could help to carry even some voters who aren’t enthusiastic about the Democratic Party: 44% of voters who plan to vote Democratic say that their vote will be primarily motivated by opposition to the Republican candidate, higher than the share who plan to vote Republican out of opposition to the Democrats.

Both parties’ leaders in Congress, meanwhile, remain deeply unpopular with the public. GOP leaders Mike Johnson and John Thune and Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer all see negative ratings.

Schumer sees particularly low numbers, with a net minus-32 favorability rating among the public as a whole and a net minus-4 even among those aligned with the Democratic Party. Jeffries, Johnson and Thune all see net positive ratings within their respective parties, although Thune remains largely unknown to the public.

What’s dividing each party?

Both parties’ supporters largely see their own party as more united than divided. Only about one-third of Democratic-aligned adults see their party as mostly divided, and just 19% of Republican-aligned adults say the same of the GOP – numbers that are little changed since last January.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t meaningful fractures within each party. On the Democratic side, 72% say that a divide over the nation’s approach to Israel is causing problems within the party. About two-thirds say that the Democratic Party is facing problematic divides over its priorities and its ideological position, with a smaller 58% majority seeing the party divided on whether Democratic elected officials should ever cooperate with Trump.

Just above half of Republican-aligned adults think the GOP is facing problems due to divides on what the party should focus on (54%), whether it should move rightward or to the center (52%), or whether Republican officials should ever publicly oppose Trump (52%). Slightly fewer than half, 47%, say Israel is posing a problematic divide with the party.

But there’s also a split on how divisive those issues are within the GOP: Moderates are 24 points likelier than conservatives to say the party faces problems from divides over ideology, and those younger than 45 are 24 points likelier than older Republicans to view Israel as controversial.

Those younger Republican-aligned voters, meanwhile, stand out as particularly disengaged from the coming election: Just 33% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters younger than 45 say they’re extremely motivated to vote, compared with a majority of older Republicans.

The story headline has been updated.

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CNN’s Edward Wu contributed to this report.