A brand new ballot commissioned by NBC Information finds that 71% of Republican voters now establish with President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” motion—an enormous leap from the 40% who recognized as MAGA a bit of over a yr in the past.
Trump is, unsurprisingly, crowing concerning the ballot. “A just out NBC Poll says that MAGA is gaining tremendous support. I am not, at all, surprised!!!” he wrote in a Reality Social put up.
After all, Trump is exaggerating the ballot’s outcomes, suggesting in his Reality Social put up that the whole nation is turning into MAGA—and never primarily Republicans, as NBC’s ballot discovered.
“All of that shift is coming from Republicans,” Invoice McInturff, a Republican pollster who helped conduct NBC’s ballot, informed the outlet.
Finally, the truth that Trump’s MAGA motion is steadily taking on extra of the Republican Celebration may very well be a significant drawback for the GOP in upcoming elections. Whereas Republican voters might help Trump, voters extra broadly—together with independents—don’t.
A brand new ballot by YouGov for the College of Massachusetts at Amherst discovered simply 31% of independents help Trump. A Quinnipiac College ballot from final week had related findings, with simply 36% of independents approving of the way in which Trump is dealing with his job as president, in contrast with 58% who disapprove. What’s extra, 51% of these independents in Quinnipiac’s survey “strongly disapprove” of Trump.
After all, in swing districts, Republicans have to win over independents and presumably even some Democratic voters to get elected. For the reason that get together has been taken over by MAGA, Republican candidates now should embrace Trump and his motion to win primaries. And that might harm them in a basic election.
In reality, this dilemma has been an issue for Republicans within the previous.
For instance, within the 2024 election, MAGA Republican Joe Kent—an election-denying white nationalist now in Trump’s administration—misplaced a Home race in Washington State in 2024 to Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, despite the fact that Trump carried the district.
Kent was the GOP nominee after he ousted a normie Republican, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who had voted to question Trump for his position within the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt on the U.S. Capitol.
And in 2022, MAGA harm Republicans within the midterms, with Trump’s hand-picked candidates dropping races Republicans ought to have gained in a typical midterm yr when a Democrat was within the White Home.
Trump’s picks sank Republicans’ probabilities at holding the Senate that yr, with nominees Mehmet Oz, Blake Masters, and Herschel Walker dropping winnable Senate races in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia, respectively.
What’s extra, the MAGA candidates whom Trump endorsed in aggressive Home seats misplaced as nicely. That features Trump superfan J.R. Majewski, who misplaced in Ohio’s Republican-leaning ninth District, in addition to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who misplaced in Alaska’s at-large Home seat.
Now, in 2025, even pretty regular Republicans are defending and embracing Trump, which is able to make it onerous for them to draw back from him and the MAGA motion within the midterms. Certainly, since Trump was sworn in in January, Republicans have misplaced winnable state-legislative particular elections and severely underperformed in a pair of Home races in Trump nation—an indication the backlash to Trump is already right here.
Polling reveals that non-MAGA Republican Susan Collins, a senator in Maine, is caught between a rock and a tough place. Collins is working for reelection in a state Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris gained in 2024. However her penchant for caving to Trump on sure points, whereas standing as much as him on issues like tariffs, has made her unpopular with each Democrats and Republicans.
From a Public Coverage Polling survey in March:
The sensation from either side that Collins is letting them down results in a uncommon ballot discovering in these polarized occasions the place voters throughout the aisle agree about one thing. Requested whether or not they think about Collins to be a robust or weak chief majorities of each Harris (19/66) and Trump (28/51) voters name her weak. General simply 24% characterize her as sturdy with 59% calling her weak.
These findings are placing Collins ready the place she may very well be weak subsequent yr each in a Republican main and the overall election. 69% of Trump voters suppose Collins is ‘too liberal,’ presumably leaving her weak to a problem from somebody to her proper. However 69% of Harris voters suppose she’s ’too conservative,’ suggesting she may battle to win the kind of crossover help from Democratic leaning voters that’s fueled her success prior to now.
As Collins would say, all indicators say Republicans needs to be very “concerned” about elections over the subsequent two years.
