In Reply to: Player stops golf tourney demanding Trump be calle posted by mh on July 20, 2026 at 11:05:40
GOP midterm strategy: Make it a “hate election”
Republicans admit the GOP’s midterm forecast is bleak. But they’re clinging to two hopes: voters’ fear and loathing of Democrats.
“It’s going to be a hate election,” a Republican tied to President Trump‘s political operation told Axios. “Voters have to hate the Dems more than they hate us. And we have material to work with.”
https://www.axios.com/2026/07/19/republicans-midterms-hate-election
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How are the double haters feeling about 2026?
In our June Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll, we asked 2,000 Americans to rate both parties on a 0-to-100 “feeling thermometer” scale (where 0 represents “cold” and 100 “warm” toward a figure/party), and about one in five registered voters put both parties below 50. This is the group we’ll call the “double haters” for the midterms, though note it’s slightly different from the 2016/2020/2024 definitions that compare favorability of presidential candidates, not parties. (We can still use our 2026 polling data to establish a benchmark for 2024 — more on that below the fold.)
Our poll shows double haters favor Democrats for 2026 by 26 points, 55% to 29%, while everyone else splits about evenly: Democrats lead by 2 among voters who like at least one party. If you do the math on the generic ballot, currently around D+7 in our poll, this means that double haters are responsible for about 80% of the party’s national margin (26 * 0.21 = 5.46 / 7 = 78%).
And if we compare how the double haters feel now to their 2024 vote and partisan identity, the real story of 2026 starts to emerge. The Democratic advantage for the midterms is not built on voters who like the Democratic Party, but on those who call themselves independents and can’t stand either major party. Let’s run the numbers.