On Tuesday, CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten underscored the Republican Party’s “motivation problem” heading into November’s midterm elections.
Enten broke down a recent CNN/SSRS poll that found that only 50% of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning voters polled Jan. 9–12 indicated that they’re “extremely motivated” to cast their ballot in 2026.
The figure marks a double-digit decline — 17 percentage points — from the 67% who answered the same way in October 2024.
“Republicans felt like, ‘Hey, we’re going out for ice cream.’ … Now they feel like they’re going to the dentist,” said Enten of GOP voters’ diminishing enthusiasm.
Over the same time period, there was a slight jump in the percentage of registered Democrats (and Democratic-leaning voters) who said they were “extremely motivated” to vote, from 62% in 2024 to 66% in 2026.
Enten emphasized that Democrats have a “turnout advantage” heading into the midterms. According to the CNN/SSRS poll, Democrats have a 16-point margin over Republicans in terms of the percentage who say they are “extremely motivated” to vote in November.
He pointed to a number of key races last year in which Democrats came out “in droves” and where Democratic candidates outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris’ results in the same districts in 2024.
As Donald Trump marks one year since his return to office on Tuesday, 70% of Republicans (and those who lean Republican) said GOP lawmakers in Congress have been effective at passing laws for policies they support, the CNN/SSRS poll found. Last January, 90% of GOP and GOP-leaning respondents agreed with that sentiment.
“That is a huge drop,” Enten said.
“So, that enthusiasm for Donald Trump isn’t necessarily translating to enthusiasm for voting for Republicans for office, because Donald Trump is signing a lot of executive orders, and Republicans in Congress aren’t necessarily passing a lot of laws.”