Plurality Say Trump’s Economic Policy is Making Economy Worse
A new Emerson College Polling national survey 40 days from the 2026 Midterm Elections finds congressional Democrats with an 11-point lead over congressional Republicans on the generic ballot, 53% to 42%.
“While the generic ballot test doesn’t capture nuances of individual races, it’s an important metric to gauge the magnitude of a potential Democratic wave,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “Independent and Hispanic voters, who broke for Trump in 2024, support the Democratic candidate by significant margins, 60% to 31% and 64% to 31%, respectively.”
A majority (71%) are “very” excited to vote in the 2026 Midterm Elections, while 20% are somewhat excited, 7% not too excited, and 3% not at all excited. While majorities of all parties are very excited to vote, Democrats are most excited at 78% compared to 70% of independents and 66% of Republicans.
President Trump holds a 39% approval rating and 58% disapproval, his highest disapproval rating of this term.
Regarding President Trump’s second term, 56% think Trump has done worse than expected, 26% better than expected, and 18% about as expected. Compared with the April 2025 100 Day Poll, those who say worse increased from 43% to 56%, while those who say better decreased from 34% to 26%.
Sixty percent think President Trump’s economic policies are making the economy worse, while 28% think they are making it better, and 13% think there is no effect or too soon to tell. Those who say Trump’s economic policies are making the economy worse increased 14 points since April 2025, from 49% to 63%, while those who say they have made them better stayed about the same, from 29% to 28%.
Forty-one percent of voters are most concerned about the economy, up four points from August. Threats to democracy follow at 17%, immigration at 13%, and healthcare at 12%
“Voters who say the economy is the top issue break for the Democratic candidate, 55% to 41%, notable considering those who said the economy is their top issue broke consistently for Republicans in 2024,” Kimball said.
Voters rated a series of issues on a scale of 1-5 when deciding which candidate to vote for this November. The Iran War, jobs, and tariff policy ranked the highest, while data centers ranked the lowest among issues listed.
| Issue | Mean (1 least important, 5 most important) |
| Iran war | 3.87 |
| Jobs | 3.8 |
| Tariff policy | 3.72 |
| Gas prices | 3.69 |
| Immigration | 3.69 |
| AI regulation | 3.66 |
| Interest rates | 3.55 |
| Israel-Gaza conflict | 3.32 |
| Data centers | 3.21 |
Methodology
The Emerson College Polling national survey was conducted September 21-22, 2026. The overall sample of U.S. likely voters, n=1,000, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE), of +/- 3 percent. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, race, age, party registration, and region based on U.S. Census parameters and voter file data.
It is important to remember that subsets based on demographics, such as gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity, carry with them higher credibility intervals, as the sample size is reduced. Survey results should be understood within the poll’s range of scores, and with a confidence interval of 95% a poll will fall outside the range of scores 1 in 20 times.
Data was collected by contacting a probability-based panel of voters provided by Consensus Strategies using MMS text-to-web, with additional panel interviews provided by PureSpectrum. All respondents were recruited using customized links that prevent responses from anyone outside of the poll’s sample frame. Panel responses were matched to the Aristotle voter file using respondents’ full name and ZIP code. The survey was administered using QuestionPro, and the survey was offered in English.
All questions asked in this survey with exact wording and order, along with full results, demographics, and cross tabulations can be found below.
