Dem
47
GOP
53
About a quarter of Americans hate both major political parties. A new CNN/SSRS poll sheds some light on their current thinking.
Double haters are nothing new. There were many voters who despised both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016. Despite their double hatred, many of them engaged in some serious nose holding and voted. They broke strongly for Trump. Again in 2024, the double haters broke strongly for Trump. Maybe it was a coincidence that he was running against women both times. SSRS didn't ask about that.
Double haters are still among us. There are millions of people who hate the Republicans and also the Democrats. But this time they break differently. The ones most likely to vote hate the Republicans even more than they hate the Democrats, by a margin of 57% to 38%. If they indeed vote (which is not certain since there is no presidential race in 2026), that will help the Democrats.
SSRS asked the double haters what they hated most about each party. The main reasons they hate the Democrats are they do nothing (22%), they are not standing up to Trump (11%), they are too liberal (11%), they are weak and spineless (9%) and they don't care about people (9%). To us, many of these seem like disaffected Democrats who want the party to be progressive and aggressive. They don't seem like low-information voters.
The most common reasons the double haters hate the Republicans are their failure to stand up to Trump (14%), they don't care about people (10%), they dislike Trump (8%) and they are corrupt (8%). One respondent said the Republicans act like spoiled brats. These seem to us to be normie Republicans who have always hated Democrats but can't stand Trump.
As is usually the case in the midterms, the president is the main driving force, although that varies somewhat by party. More than three-quarters of voters who plan to support the Democrats are doing it to send a message to Trump, not because they like Democratic policies. However, only half of people planning to vote Republican are doing it as a show of support for Trump. (V)