The most recent Associated Press-NORC polling, released on Thursday, showed Trump with 31 percent approval, the lowest during either of his two terms. Only 26 percent of respondents approved Trump\u2019s handling of the economy, dipping two points below his predecessor, former President Joe Biden\u2019s lowest rating on the topic.<\/p>\n
Surveys continue to show voters rank the economy as their top issue, with topics like gas prices, made higher by the US-Israel war with Iran, dominating their concerns. Immigration and corruption have also regularly ranked high.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe broad stroke is that Americans are disappointed, bordering on angry that President Trump hasn\u2019t delivered on the core promises he made when he won re-election,\u201d according to Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n
House looking solid for Dems<\/p>\n
Political trackers have long projected Democrats will take control of the US House of Representatives in the November 3 vote.<\/p>\n
Winning a majority in the 435-member chamber from Republicans would give the party renewed legislative power to assert leverage over Trump, while launching investigations into his administration\u2019s dealings. Top Democrats have already signalled that probes into Trump\u2019s family business dealings<\/a> would be top priorities.<\/p>\n Two election non-partisan prediction authorities, the Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia\u2019s Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball, have recently assessed that the likelihood of Democrats taking the House has only increased.<\/p>\n The Cook Political Report recently shifted 15 House races in the direction of Democrats, moving some considered \u201ctoss-ups\u201d to \u201cleans Democrat\u201d and some previously considered \u201clean Republican\u201d to \u201ctoss-ups\u201d.<\/p>\n One such shift was for a Texas border district represented by Republican Monica De La Cruz. Her district was emblematic of a wider Latino shift towards Trump in 2024. Once seen as holding the advantage over her challenger, Democrat Bobby Pulido, Cook now rates her race as a \u201ctoss-up\u201d.<\/p>\n All told, the political analysis clearinghouse now predicts Democrats are on track to win 5 to 15 House seats.<\/p>\n Senate in play<\/p>\n With 30 days left to go, \u201cthere\u2019s much more drama in the Senate than the House races\u201d, according to Kyle Kondik, the managing editor at Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball.<\/p>\n Once considered a pipe dream for Democrats, who need a net gain of at least four seats to win a slim majority, the 100-member chamber has moved within a more comfortable striking distance.<\/p>\n Unlike in the House, where every seat is up for re-election, only 35 Senate seats are up for grabs in this cycle, creating a far narrower pathway to control.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trajectory of the polling since Labor Day (September 7) has generally been that a bad Republican environment is just getting worse,\u201d Kondik said, adding that \u201cthe Senate just seems to get more and more competitive as the cycle has gone on\u201d.<\/p>\n To be sure, the quality of polling can vary across the country, with Kondik cautioning that gauging the political temperature of the Midwest has been particularly challenging for pollsters.<\/p>\n Still, in North Carolina, former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper is expected to trounce former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley in the race for a Senate seat currently held by Republicans. Top conservative donors have already begun to divert funds from the contest.<\/p>\n Surveys have consistently shown Democrats leading in three other races for seats currently held by Republicans: Democrat James Talarico against Republican Ken Paxton in Texas; Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown against Republican incumbent Senator John Husted in Ohio; and Democratic Mary Peltola against Republican Dan Sullivan in Alaska.<\/p>\n Races for Republican held seats in Iowa, between Republican Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek, and in Maine, between Republican incumbent Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, remain separated by less than one point, according to Real Clear Politics polling averages.<\/p>\n Democrats, meanwhile, have consistently led in polling in Senate races in Georgia, New Hampshire and Michigan for seats the party currently holds.<\/p>\n Big money in the race<\/p>\n For Republicans, salvation could be in the spending, with this year\u2019s race continuing a US phenomenon of small fortunes<\/a> poured into politics.<\/p>\n All told, at least $4bn had been spent on gubernatorial and congressional midterm advertising buys as of September 17, putting the race on track to become \u201cperhaps the most expensive midterm on record\u201d, according to Michael Franz, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project.<\/p>\n Republicans entered September with a considerable funding edge. The Republican National Committee had $125.6m on hand, with the Democratic National Committee trailing far behind with $16.9m and $17.6m in debt.<\/p>\n When accounting for the three major committees associated with both groups, the Republican Party had $233.4m in cash, according to a CNBC analysis, while the Democratic Party had $130.4m.<\/p>\n Trip Yang, a Democrat strategist based in New York City, told Al Jazeera such spending can be deployed to help boost a candidate\u2019s name recognition or to tear down a competitor.<\/p>\n According to AdImpact, Republicans and their allies were set to spend $888m on advertising from mid-September to election day, with Democrats and their supporters set to spend $666m.<\/p>\n The firm found pro-Republican ad spending would be particularly pronounced in the key Senate races in Ohio, Texas and Michigan, outpacing Democratic spending by at least $24m in each state.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s unpopularity, Yang said, means \u201cRepublicans spending millions or hundreds of millions of dollars improving their candidates\u2019 images by itself may not be enough\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a little bit handicapped because your president is so toxic, you try to spend your hundreds of millions of dollars attacking the Democrats to make it more of a food fight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A New York Times analysis estimated by the end of August at least $1bn in so-called \u201cdark money\u201d had been poured into the midterms. The term refers to spending where the donor\u2019s identity is shielded, typically through nonprofit and shell-company donations to Super PACs.<\/p>\n Industry groups, including those supporting Crypto, AI and online betting firms, are expected to be top spenders in key races, although their support tends to cut across partisan lines.<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, has pledged<\/a> to spend between $400m and $500m from his MAGA Inc Super PAC, though it has so far spent about $15m to support Paxton\u2019s Senate bid in Texas.<\/p>\n Pro-Paxton ad reservations far outpaced Talarico in September, according to AdImpact data analysed by NPR, with $94m spent compared with $30m to support the Democrat.<\/p>\n The Trump factor<\/p>\n Trump has pledged to spend the final days before the election in non-stop campaign mode, after urging supporters<\/a> during his Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, to \u201cvote like I\u2019m on the ballot\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/reuters_6ac10999-1791035801.jpg\")
US President Donald Trump participates in a midterm election rally for Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei at the Choctaw Event Center in Durant, Oklahoma, US, October 1, 2026. [Nick Oxford\/Reuters]<\/p>\n