{"id":223124,"date":"2026-06-19T12:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/223124\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T12:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:13:11","slug":"poll-pennsylvania-voters-concerned-about-economy-dissatisfied-with-president-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/223124\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll: Pennsylvania voters concerned about economy, dissatisfied with President Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Map from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Tourism and Transportation website <\/p>\n

Pennsylvania voters \u201care deeply concerned about their personal finances and are increasingly dissatisfied with President Trump\u2019s performance,\u201d according to a Franklin & Marshall College Poll released <\/a>Thursday.<\/p>\n

Of those surveyed, 71% believe President Trump is doing a fair or poor job, compared to 29% who said he is doing an excellent or good job. The poll noted a \u201csizable decline\u201d of 10 points since its March survey, when Trump\u2019s positive approval rating was 39%. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s approval ratings for immigration, foreign affairs and inflation all dropped since the college\u2019s October poll. Trump\u2019s approval of how he is handling of inflation fell from 31% positive in October to 17% positive in the poll released Thursday.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of the voters (47%) say their financial condition is worse than a year ago. That\u2019s an increase from the college\u2019s last poll in March, when 36% of voters said they were worse off financially compared to the year before.<\/p>\n

More than a third of Pennsylvania voters (35%) said the economy \u2013 which includes unemployment, housing and real estate costs, and higher gas and utility prices \u2013 is the state\u2019s most important problem. Among those voters who said the economy is the No. 1 problem, 42% said Democrats can handle the economy better while 24% said Republicans can.<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s Pennsylvania approval rating by party<\/p>\n

Excellent: Republicans, 23%; Democrats, 2%; independents\/others, 8%
Good: Republicans, 40%; Democrats, 3%; independents\/others, 7%
Fair: Republicans, 19%; Democrats, 5%; independents\/others, 17%
Poor: Republicans, 17%; Democrats, 90%; independents\/others, 68%
Source: Franklin & Marshall College poll<\/p>\n

The poll also asked voters how they would vote on a generic ballot \u2013 Republican or Democrat \u2013 in the U.S. House race.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats have a pretty big lead \u2013 12 points,\u201d Berwood Yost, director of the college\u2019s Center for Opinion Research, said during an online forum to discuss the poll Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing about the midterm congressional races is that Democrats seem much more interested in the election \u2026 than Republicans [by] about a 13-point advantage [64% to 51%],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The two first-term Republican congressmen \u2013 Ryan Mackenzie vs. Democrat Bob Brooks in the Lehigh Valley\u2019s 7th District and Rob Bresnahan vs. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti in the 8th \u2013 are vulnerable, Yost said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got two freshman Republicans. Freshmen always have a tough time, right? I would say, given the nature of those districts, they\u2019re very narrow Republican advantages in terms of performance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201dI think those two guys are in real trouble just because of the context\u201d of low approval ratings for Trump and attitudes about the economy.<\/p>\n

Democrats are targeting Republican incumbents in the 7th and 8th districts as well as the 1st (incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick vs. Democratic Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie) and the 10th (incumbent Scott Perry vs. Democrat Janelle Stelson) in their attempt to take control of the U.S. House in 2027. Yost noted that voter attitudes could change by the Nov. 3 election.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania issues<\/p>\n

Respondents to the poll also weighed in on Pennsylvania issues.<\/p>\n

Nearly half (47%) believe the state is \u201con the wrong track\u201d while 36% believe it is \u201cheaded in the right direction.\u201d The last time a majority of registered voters believed the state was headed in the right direction was January 2020.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s job approval ratings \u201care holding up pretty well considering how much pessimism voters express,\u201d the poll said.<\/p>\n

Voters are evenly divided on Shapiro, with 48% saying he is doing an excellent or good job and 48% saying he is doing a fair or poor job. However, in looking at the November election for governor, the poll found that Shapiro, a Democrat, leads Republican Stacy Garrity, the state\u2019s treasurer, 50% to 28%.<\/p>\n

Voters who positively view Shapiro\u2019s job performance cross partisan lines, with three out of four Democrats, nearly half of independents, and about a quarter of Republicans saying he is doing an \u201cexcellent\u201d or \u201cgood\u201d job.<\/p>\n

The poll\u2019s results on state issues show:<\/p>\n

89% support limiting students\u2019 access to cell phones in schools.<\/p>\n

72% favor a state law that would make it illegal to discriminate in employment or housing based on a person\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity. \u201cVoters have consistently favored such a law since the question was first asked in 2014,\u201d the poll said.<\/p>\n

71% favor regulating and taxing skill games, which are similar to computer video games. That is an increase from Franklin & Marshall\u2019s 2024 poll when 60% were in favor of regulating and taxing them. (On Monday, the state Supreme Court ruled<\/a> that skill games, which are found in social clubs, bars and convenience stores, are a form of gambling and should be regulated by the state. The decision clears the way for the state to tax the estimated 70,000 machines in Pennsylvania.)<\/p>\n

70% support having an independent redistricting commission draw legislative districts, and 59% oppose the mid-decade redistricting occurring in some states.<\/p>\n

The poll of 546 registered voters was conducted June 8\u201314 by the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College. Of the 546 respondents, there were 233 Democrats, 226 Republicans and 87 independents. All respondents were contacted by mail. Interviews were then conducted by phone or online. The poll has a margin of error of +\/- 5.1 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Map from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Tourism and Transportation website Pennsylvania voters \u201care deeply concerned about their personal finances…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-223124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}