With less than two weeks to go before the congressional elections, Americans are nearly as gloomy about the economy as they were when the nation was emerging from the pandemic, and President Donald Trump's economic approval rating is hitting an all-time low, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey.
Eight out of 10 Americans rate the economy as fair or poor, the highest number since December 2023 and one of several ominous signs for Republicans in the new polling data released Thursday that show why their candidates are facing an uphill battle in the midterm.
Downbeat views on the economy are most intense among Democrats and independents, but there's been a strong move toward economic pessimism even among Republicans in recent months. Overall, 63% of the public is pessimistic about the current state of the economy and the outlook, up 1 percentage point from the July survey. But that percentage now includes 35% of Republicans, up 6 points from July and the highest level of Republican pessimism of either of Trump's two terms.
"We got there not because of independents or Democrats getting more sour — it's because Republicans have," said Micah Roberts, partner at Public Opinion Strategies, the Republican pollster for the survey. "Since Trump has been president, [Republicans] have held on to a small margin saying that the current economy is either excellent or good. And now that has kind of broken and changed."
The survey of 1,000 registered voters nationwide, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%, found Americans preferring Democratic control of Congress by a 52% to 45% margin. The 7 percentage point Democratic edge represents a 3 percentage point gain for Democrats from the July survey.