CNN poll: Democrats are deeply motivated for the midterms despite having dismal views of party leaders

By Jennifer Agiesta, Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN

(CNN) — The Democratic Party has a deeply motivated base and a clear advantage on the generic congressional ballot ahead of this fall’s midterms despite dismal impressions of its current leaders in Congress, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

Democratic registered voters are far more motivated right now than Republicans. While the party has a 5-point edge on the generic ballot, among those who say they’re deeply motivated to vote, that advantage expands to a massive 16 points.

Democrats enter this year with a chance to capitalize on public dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled government in Washington. CNN’s poll found a majority of Americans consider the first year of Trump’s second term to be a failure, with just 29% of independents approving of his job performance.

The generic congressional ballot measures which of the two major parties voters would rather support in an upcoming election. While it does not capture how voters may ultimately respond to the candidates whose names appear in their district, the generic ballot can be an early indicator of which party holds the upper hand nationwide.

In 2018, when Democrats won back the US House in Trump’s first term, Democrats had a similar 5-point edge among registered voters at around the same point in the year. In 2022, when Republicans won a narrow majority during former President Joe Biden’s administration, voters were about evenly split between the two parties.

Dissatisfaction with current Democratic leaders

Approval for congressional Democratic leaders stands at just 28%, below the 35% figure for their Republican counterparts. Both figures are little changed from last April.

Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, broad majorities say Democrats in Congress have done too little to oppose Trump and have been ineffective at resisting Republican policies they oppose. They see their party’s caucus as falling particularly short compared with rank-and-file expectations for resisting Republican policies: Seventy-one percent say Democrats in Congress have been ineffective on that score, up 20 points from the 51% who expected a less than effective effort last January when the current Congress convened.

Extremely motivated Democratic-aligned voters are more likely than those who are less motivated to say Democrats in Congress aren’t doing enough to oppose Trump and aren’t effectively opposing Republican policies. They’re also more likely to say they don’t feel represented at all by the government in Washington. That discontent with the party’s efforts could affect how primary challenges to sitting members of Congress play out in the coming months.

As in other recent election cycles, the overall public mood at the start of 2026 remains generally bleak. Most call the economy poor. Among the group that feels that way, which tilts Democratic, “a change in political leadership” is as popular a remedy as bringing down inflation.

Roughly three-quarters of Republicans approve of the GOP’s congressional leaders, while just 48% of Democrats approve of their party’s leaders in Congress. Among independents, the two sets of party leaders are viewed about equally badly, with roughly three-quarters disapproving of each side.

The public is broadly split over whether the country would be better off or worse off if Democrats won control of Congress this November. Republicans largely consolidate around saying worse off (84%), with Democrats slightly less likely to say the country would be better off (79%). Independents tilt toward the positive, 35% better off compared with 27% worse off, but a sizable 37% say a change in control would make no difference.

This tepid sentiment doesn’t hurt Democrats on generic ballot preferences, though, as many of those who aren’t convinced that Democratic control of Congress will make a difference are willing to gamble on a change regardless: Registered voters in this group favor the Democrats over the Republicans on the generic ballot by a roughly 2-to-1 margin.

Assessing GOP leadership

A 61% majority of Americans say Republicans in Congress have been at least somewhat effective in passing new laws, lower than the 76% who expected them to be effective at doing so a year ago, when they took full control of the federal government for the first time in six years.

While about half of the public overall says congressional Republicans are too supportive of Trump, and a similar share that Trump has been bad for the Republican Party, those sentiments aren’t shared within the GOP.

A 56% majority of Republican-aligned adults say the GOP caucus is doing the right amount to support Trump, with 33% saying they aren’t supportive enough, and just 11% that they’re too supportive. Even amid recent high-profile pushback on Trump from some Republicans, the share of the party’s base that sees the caucus as insufficiently supportive has risen by 9 points since last February.

Two-thirds of GOP-aligned adults say Trump has had a good effect on the Republican Party, with just 15% saying he’s had a bad effect on the GOP. Among Republicans and Republican-leaners, 9 in 10 self-identified members of the “Make America Great Again” movement say Trump has had a good effect on the party, with just 1% seeing his influence as a negative. Among the rest of the party, that margin is smaller, but the 51% who say he’s had a good effect still roughly doubles the 25% who see him as a negative influence.

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The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS online and by phone from January 9-12 among a random national sample of 1,209 adults, including 968 registered voters. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points; it is 3.5 points among registered voters.