Independent voters’ skepticism of Donald Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 presidential race and his contention that American elections are not secure are contributing to a broader trend of the key voting bloc abandoning the president ahead of November’s midterms.
Multiple polls conducted in recent weeks show independents continue to be frustrated by Trump’s job performance and skeptical of his “rigged” 2020 election claims.
The day he took his second oath of office, YouGov’s weekly tracker put his favorable rating at 40.7 percent among independents, with an unfavorable level of 56.3 percent. As of the most recent incarnation of the poll, released July 13, the voting bloc had a 28.7 percent favorable rating and a 69.3 unfavorable level.
More than half (59 percent) of independents said they were either “very confident” or “somewhat confident” that the congressional elections in four months will be fair, according to a survey conducted last month by YouGov and The Economist.
The same poll asked participants if they believed the president has “concrete evidence” to back up his 2020 claims or whether he was merely attempting to “sow doubt.” Among independents, 77 percent said he was trying to plant doubts in voters minds; that compares to 72 percent of Republicans who said he had hard evidence. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll released last week found 26 percent of independents approved of his job performance. That included 6 percent who strongly approved and an eyebrow-raising 71 percent who disapproved.
