Poll: Democrats Headed For Disappointment In 2018 Midterm Elections Against ‘Teflon Don’

Democrats are in for a rude awakening if they think merely being anti-Trump will deliver control of Congress to them in the 2018 midterm elections.

That seems to be the warning drawn from private polls and swing-state focus groups apparently conducted mostly by the Democrat political operatives themselves, even as a series of controversies continue to swirl about the White House.

Don’t bank on President Trump’s low approval ratings in public polls, assuming that data is valid, being automatically transferable to Democrats on Election Day 2018, the findings suggest. National polls accepted by the political and media establishment as conclusive also suggested that Trump had no chance to win the presidency, and history has shown how that worked out. Either way, a lot can happen between now and November 2018.

In an article about the private polling data called “Teflon Don Confounds Democrats,” Politico explained that the intense attacks on Trump, Russia-related or otherwise, don’t seem to be working.

“Pollsters are shocked by how many voters describe themselves as ‘exhausted’ by the constant chaos surrounding Trump…But he is still viewed as an outsider shaking up the system, which people in the various surveys say they like, and which Democrats don’t stack up well against. In focus groups, most participants say they’re still impressed with Trump’s business background and tend to give him credit for the improving economy…More than that, no single Democratic attack on the president is sticking — not on his temperament, his lack of accomplishments or the deals he’s touted that have turned out to be less than advertised…”

Politico continued.

“Voters are also generally unimpressed by claims that Trump exaggerates or lies, and they don’t see the ongoing Russia investigation adding up to much…On immigration and trade, voters remain largely aligned with Trump. Data show that voters believe that the economy is moving in the right direction and resent Democrats attacking its progress.”

This data was gathered prior to Trump’s deal or no deal on DACA, which disappointed at least some of his base of support and could cause them to stay home rather than vote in the midterms, and which would be big trouble for the Republicans, although the details of the legislation remain to be ironed out.

With that in mind, “Pollster John McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates is warning Republicans, based on a latest omnibus poll, that unless they start keeping campaign promises to Trump voters, the president’s base may not turn out to vote for them in the 2018 midterm elections,” The Daily Caller reported.

In 2016, the president won the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, in part, because of those Obama voters who switched to the GOP column. Trump was a former Democrat and independent who, as a first-time candidate, ran for president as a Republican.

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According to various pundits, he has governed like an independent, given the friction with both the GOP and Democrat leadership on Capitol Hill. Even before November 2018 rolls around, various GOP incumbents are already facing primaries from pro-Trump, pro-MAGA candidates. Trump himself obviously won’t be on the ballot directly until 2020. The GOP currently controls both chambers but has been unable to agree on a repeal of Obamacare, for example. For this and various other reasons, Congress itself is very unpopular with the electorate.

Signature liberal/progressive agenda items for the Democrats like free college tuition, Medicare for all, and a $15 minimum wage are turning off voters, however, according to the above-referenced findings. “The call for free college tuition fosters both resentment at ivory tower elitism and regret from people who have degrees but are now buried under debt.” Voters favor Democrats over Republicans on healthcare issues, which again likely goes back to the failed Obamacare repeal.

The data also apparently suggested that Trump wasn’t hurt by his post-Charlottesville comments as much as the national media believes, and that “shifting the debate to whether or not to remove Confederate monuments largely worked for him.”

The president and his agenda continue to encounter headwinds in media precincts, which Trump and his aides have described as the opposition party, and which may have an impact on his popularity or lack thereof. According to the Media Research Center, “In June, July and August, broadcast evening news coverage of Trump was 91 percent negative.”

In May, Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy similarly found that media coverage in the first 100 days of the Trump presidency was overwhelmingly negative on all issues based on an evaluation of CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and three European news outlets.

Separately, a Houston resident who met President Trump while he was recently handing out supplies to those who took shelter at NRG Stadium there after Hurricane Harvey says in the video below that she changed her mind about him.

When the dust settles in 2018, which political party do you think will control Congress?

[Featured Image by Susan Walsh/AP Images]