Heading into the midterm election season, the economy is still the No. 1 issue for voters, including among President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again coalition, a new poll shows.
The poll from NBC News Decision Desk showed that Republicans and MAGA Republicans are slightly shifting their outlook on the economy, becoming more likely to say their personal financial situation is worse off today than it was one year ago. The poll found that 64% of people think the economy is on the “wrong track,” compared to 60% at the beginning of the year.
Out of nine given categories, 27% of the 20,252 people polled between Nov. 20 and Dec. 8 listed the economy as the No. 1 issue that matters most to them, with 44% of survey respondents listing “inflation and the rising cost of living” as the most important economic matter to their family.
On specific living costs, 22% of survey respondents pointed to housing as their biggest concern. Only 1% of respondents said the cost of gas was their biggest concern, coming as gas prices continue to fall on a national scale, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Trump, who won in 2024 after a campaign that emphasized lowering costs for the nation, touted his economic policies and progress in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, but said it might “take people a while to figure all these things out.”
“I’ve created the greatest economy in history. But it may take people a while to figure all these things out,” Trump said. “All this money that’s pouring into our country is building things right now—car plants, [artificial intelligence], lots of stuff. I cannot tell you how that’s going to equate to the voter, all I can do is do my job.”
In terms of political faction affiliation, among Democrats, the split was also 50/50 between those who identified as supporters of the progressive movement and those who supported the Democratic Party.
With the 2026 midterm elections less than a year away, Democratic establishment incumbents have seen primary challenges from progressives and younger candidates who have garnered strong fundraising numbers.
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Republicans were split 50/50 between identifying as supporters of the MAGA movement and as supporters of the Republican Party, which NBC said changed from 57% identifying as MAGA in April. The outlet said the number of MAGA Republicans who “strongly approve” of Trump fell from 38% in April to 35% in this survey.
“MAGA Republicans more than anyone else remember what happened when [former President] Joe Biden and Democrats took the reins: a generational inflation crisis, slow growth, government censorship, weaponization of our justice system, and tens of millions of unvetted illegal migrants driving down wages and driving up rent,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Washington Examiner. “President Trump delivered historic job, wage, and economic growth in his first term, and he’s implementing the same policy agenda to repeat the success in his second term.”
