Donald Trump approval rating jumps, big positive for Republicans ahead of US midterm elections 2026

Donald Trump approval rating has gone up days before the US midterm elections 2026. President Trump's approval ratings inched higher to 32 per cent, up a percentage point from his record low a week earlier, ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday. President Trump's fellow Republicans are fighting to retain the party's majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate.

The five-day poll, which was conducted nationwide, also showed that registered voters broadly favored Democrats over Republicans by 47 per cent to 36 per cent when asked which party they would vote for in what is known as a "generic ballot" question. Some 11 per cent said they did not know who they would vote for if the election were held today.

Democrats vs Republicans


That gap of 11 percentage points between Democrats and Republicans was 1 percentage point tighter than in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on October 19. The poll that closed on Monday additionally asked undecided voters which party they were leaning toward. Factoring in their responses, the national race appeared somewhat tighter, with Democrats leading by 9 percentage points, 50 per cent to 41 per cent.

For Republicans, losing control of either chamber could complicate Trump's agenda in the last two years ​of his second term as president.

Generic ballot polls are national polls that provide an overall view of which party poll respondents would like to see in charge in Congress. While these polls provide a view of national public sentiment, they do not ‌capture the nuances of the state-by-state and district-by-district contests that determine control of the Senate and House, contests in which Republicans hold some structural advantages.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 1,679 US adults, including 1,280 registered voters, and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points for all adults and 3 points for registered voters.

Donald Trump in Mississippi

Trump heads Monday to Mississippi, as he continues a closing midterm campaign blitz that highlights Republicans' challenges ahead of an election that could drastically shift power in Washington and statehouses across the country.

The Democratic Senate candidate Trump wants to help defeat, Scott Colom, said he's going to the president's rally site, too — creating the rare spectacle of Trump's staunchest supporters interacting directly with one of the very figures the president surely will denigrate onstage later.

“I’m going to ask that voter, those voters, what matters to them, because they actually deserve a senator that will listen to them, that actually cares about what they think, actually cares about what they’re going through,” Colom said ahead of the president's arrival for the evening event with Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Importance of Mississippi

Mississippi, among the nation's most reliably Republican states, is not where the GOP envisioned needing a late-October stop from the president.

But Hyde-Smith faces a stiff challenge from Colom, one of many Democratic underdogs that have managed to expand the House and Senate battleground maps because of widespread voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump’s second presidency.