Surprise – Fewer people are motivated to vote against Trump than prior presidents
Bottom Line: Given the bombastic approach by President Trump and the media's overwhelming negative coverage of him (91% of news media coverage is negative according to the Media Research Center) you'd likely think that as we approach the mid-term elections – there would be potentially record levels of voters lining up to vote against President Trump and his agenda. Based on the latest from the Pew Research Center, there might not even be as many people voting in opposition to President Trump – as there were with President's Obama and Bush.
According to Pew 61% of Democrats say the biggest factor in their vote this year is to vote against Donald Trump. While significant and not terribly surprising it actually is below the 65% who said they'd be voting against George W. Bush in 2006. But the bigger story-line is when you compare all voters. For those suggesting their vote will predominantly be based on the President rather than the specific candidates and issues in races this year – there are 8% more people who intend to vote against President Trump. Without context that might seem significant but consider that in 2014 there were 10% more voters voting against President Obama and 23% more who were voting against Bush in 2006. To put it a different way, Trump has a lower percentage of net voters who intend to vote against him than with Presidents Bush and Obama. That, I suspect, is a surprise to many.