Early results from the NBC News Exit Poll show why Election Night went the way it did: 43 percent of voters said one reason for their vote was to express opposition to President Trump — far higher than the 30 percent who said the same in 2018 — while only 38 percent said they approve of the job he is doing.
NBC reported that many voters cast their ballots against the President, blaming him for high prices and for hurting the economy. The economy was the top issue on voters' minds at 39 percent, followed by the state of democracy at 32 percent, and both parties were viewed more unfavorably than favorably.
The approval number is the hard one: at 38 percent, down from 45 percent in 2018, the President's job rating among the people who actually voted is lower than the Election Day rating of any sitting president in nearly two decades.
None of this should come as a surprise. It is normal for voters to feel this way when prices are the first thing on their minds. President Trump had the chance to govern as a moderate — to pick his fights and leave other issues alone. Instead, he touched issue after issue and governed at full stretch on all of them. We attribute that to the moment America lost Charlie Kirk: after Kirk was killed, the President hardened, and the moderate path went with him.
For ordinary households, the message in these numbers is about the cost of living: voters who feel worse off voted that feeling on Tuesday. The new balance of power in Washington — a House projected to flip to the Democrats and a Senate still being fought over — will now decide what happens next on prices, taxes and the rest of the President's agenda in his final two years.
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