Voters Say Congress Isn't Checking Trump

About 7 in 10 voters under 30 backed the Democratic candidate in their local U.S. House race, and most young voters said their vote was meant “to express opposition” to Donald Trump. The AP Voter Poll found a sharp rebuke of the presidency among many voters, alongside deep dissatisfaction with the institution supposedly positioned to check it.

A ballot aimed at the presidency

About 4 in 10 voters overall said they wanted “to express opposition” to Trump with their congressional vote. Just under 2 in 10 wanted “to express support” for him, while roughly 4 in 10 said he wasn’t a factor in their decision. Older voters, who tend to be more conservative in general, were less likely to say they were signaling dissatisfaction with the president.

The youth vote shifted markedly from the 2024 presidential contest. In that election, the youngest voters were roughly split between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. By the 2026 midterms, about 7 in 10 voters under 30 backed the Democratic House candidate, while about 3 in 10 voted Republican. Voters under 30 made up about 1 in 10 of the electorate.

Anger ran high among younger voters. About half of those under 30 said they were “angry” about the direction of the country, compared with about one-third of voters ages 65 and older. The poll records that anger and how people expressed it at the ballot box, but it doesn’t describe grassroots organizing or mutual aid outside electoral politics.

Hispanic voters also moved away from Republican House candidates, though less than younger voters did. About one-third backed the Republican in their local race, compared with roughly 4 in 10 who voted for Trump two years earlier. About 6 in 10 Hispanic voters backed the Democratic House candidate, and about 7 in 10 said Trump’s policies had worsened U.S. economic conditions.

The checks voters say are missing

About 6 in 10 voters disapproved of how Trump handled the presidency. About the same share said he placed his personal interests ahead of the country’s. Asked whether Congress provided checks and balances on the presidency, roughly 7 in 10 said it did “not enough.” About 2 in 10 said Congress did “about the right amount,” and about 1 in 10 said it did “too much.”

That judgment crossed party lines. The vast majority of independents and about 4 in 10 Republicans said Congress wasn’t doing enough. Yet about three-quarters of voters disapproved of Congress’s handling of its job. The poll shows voters want institutional restraint on presidential power while distrusting the institution assigned that role. The ballot measures dissatisfaction, not a change to the structure of that relationship.

The economy topped the list for about 4 in 10 voters, while roughly 3 in 10 named the state of democracy. About 1 in 10 named immigration or health care, and few named foreign policy or crime. Voters also worried about the high cost of gasoline and food. Roughly half said government corruption and the cost of living were “crucial” to their congressional vote, a larger share than for immigration enforcement policies, the war in Iran or AI data centers.

Party choices, public distrust

Among voters who considered government corruption crucial, most backed the Democratic House candidate and about 4 in 10 voted Republican. Among voters who named the state of democracy as the country’s top issue, about 8 in 10 supported the Democrat and about 2 in 10 the Republican. Democrats held at least a slight perceived advantage over Republicans on several major issues, including the economy and government corruption, and a small edge on foreign policy. Their advantage was wider on transgender issues and health care.

Voters split over which party would better handle artificial intelligence and taxes; Republicans held a small advantage on immigration. A significant share said they trusted neither party. Just under half had a “somewhat” or “strongly” favorable view of the Democratic Party, while about 4 in 10 viewed the Republican Party positively. These figures describe choices within the party system, not a grassroots alternative to it.

SSRS conducted the AP Voter Poll for The Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, FOX News Media, NBC News and Versant. It combined probability-based and non-probability-based interviews with registered voters in all 50 states. Interviews ran from Oct. 19 to Nov. 3 in Alaska and Oct. 22 to Nov. 3 in all other states; the margin of sampling error for the full sample was plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.

A separate nationwide survey by the NORC Civic Health & Elections Project examined how demographic and political groups voted for Congress and in key Senate elections. The Washington Post and other organizations sponsored preliminary results. The survey interviewed more than 90,000 U.S. voters nationally in the week leading up to Election Day.