Copyright NBC News
Voters are enthusiastic about elections right now — to the point that some wanted to know Tuesday why polling places across Kentucky, which did not have elections, were closed. “You cannot vote today in Kentucky for the mayor of New York City or the Governor of Virginia,” Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams wrote on X. “Sorry.” Tuesday’s election results in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and beyond also demonstrated high interest in elections at the moment, with strong turnout and, ultimately, sizable wins for Democrats in statewide and local campaigns that had become referendums on President Donald Trump, at least in part. Two findings from the latest national NBC News poll, which shows Trump’s approval rating down from March, help explain not only Tuesday’s results but how a fired-up Democratic Party base is engaging with politics right now. The large “No Kings” protest movement has mobilized those strongly opposed to Trump, and interest in the 2026 election is already at a historically high point, according to the poll. More than 4 in 10 registered voters (43%) say they support No Kings, a larger share than some past political protest movements measured by NBC News polling, and about the same size as the Black Lives Matter movement was in April 2023. A little less than 3 in 10 Americans supported the tea party movement in September 2010, the first time it was asked in an NBC News poll, and about the same amount supported the Occupy Wall Street movement in November 2011. Meanwhile, today, one-third of registered voters said they currently support Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. Support for the No Kings movement is about on par with the share of voters who say they strongly disapprove of Trump, 48%, as voters say he’s fallen short on the economy and other key issues. More than three-quarters of those who disapprove of Trump’s job performance say they support the No Kings movement, while almost none of those who approve of Trump support the movement. And support for No Kings is largely correlated with party identification, including over 8 in 10 Democrats, almost 4 in 10 independents — and just 6% of Republicans. The protests are not the only sign that, like in his first term, Trump is energizing his own opposition. A year out from the 2026 midterm elections, voters are fired up. On a scale of 1 to 10, more than 65% of voters said they’re a “9” or a “10” — very interested in next November’s midterms. That number is on par with typical voter enthusiasm right before each of the last five midterms, which makes it extraordinarily high at this point in the race, with one year still to go. At about this time four years ago, 59% of voters said they were interested in the 2022 midterms. A month before those elections, in October 2022, that enthusiasm had spiked to 70%, the highest interest in the month preceding any of the last three midterms. This year, the majority of those highly enthusiastic voters favor Democratic control of Congress and blame Republicans for the federal government shutdown, while about 40% of enthusiastic voters want to see Republicans in control of Congress. The NBC News poll was conducted Oct. 24-28, as the shutdown neared the one-month mark. More than one-third of Americans say the shutdown directly affects them. What’s unclear is whether the politics of this moment will last beyond the shutdown’s end — including whether election enthusiasm continues post-shutdown. The NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters Oct. 24-28 via a mix of telephone interviews and an online survey sent via text message. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
