September 26, 2026

The Big Picture: Republicans Risk Getting Trumped in Midterms

Voters cast their ballots on Sept. 18 in Arlington, Va.

Tom Brenner/Getty Images

Remember when President Trump said earlier this month for voters to pretend like he’s on the ballot? Well, many voters are taking that to heart — just not in the way he might have hoped.

The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds Trump’s approval rating at near record lows, with the highest number of voters saying they strongly disapprove of him at any point of either term.

To make matters worse for Republicans, more voters say they would prefer a Democrat to represent them in Congress, and voters believe Democrats would be better at tackling gas prices, the economy, foreign policy – even immigration, one of the GOP’s signature issues.

There’s a massive swing away from Trump since his roughly 1.5% popular vote victory in the 2024 presidential election. This week’s poll of registered voters gives Democrats a 12-point advantage.

That math is why both parties are paying attention to newly competitive races in pretty conservative areas, like Senate races in Texas, Ohio and Iowa and House districts in deep red parts of Alabama, Kentucky and Florida.

There are signs that vulnerable candidates are trying to distance themselves somewhat from Trump policies that aren’t popular with their voters, like Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson and former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, both Republican Senate nominees, reversing their positions to come out in favor of ending the Iran war and called for suspension of gas taxes to combat rising prices.

All of this sits against a backdrop of an American public that isn’t happy with the status quo overall: The poll finds more people say they want to vote for candidates who bring new ideas and change over experience and a proven record.

The pessimistic vibe extends to the election process, as NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang notes: the U.S. Postal Service is losing more of the public’s trust that it will deliver mail-in ballots on time, and most Republicans still believe that there is a great deal or good amount of fraud when people are allowed to vote by mail.

— Stephen Fowler, NPR political reporter

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ICYMI: Top Stories

President Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands as they leave after their talks at the Gimhae Air Base, located next to the Gimhae International Airport in Busan in October 2025.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Trump hosts Xi: President Trump this week hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his first state visit in 11 years, with issues like the ongoing trade war and artificial intelligence on the agenda. The visit did not produce any major breakthroughs, but Trump announced shortly after Xi’s departure that the two leaders would meet two more times before the end of the year.

Trump vs. the press: One thing that was missing from Xi’s state visit? American TV cameras. The networks that make up the White House television pool suspended coverage of Trump’s events after he banned journalists from CNN, MSNOW and Politico, claiming they were covering him unfairly. The outlets promptly sued, and after an emergency hearing a judge ordered the journalists’ access be temporarily restored while the legal case continues.

Hindsight is 2020: President Trump is still talking about the 2020 election. Voters want to move on.

Ballot confusion: Across the country, local election officials say they're hearing from Americans who are confused by the voting process — and worried about potential federal interference. Now, with voting in the midterms already underway, they’re trying to thread the needle of engaging with voters about their fears, without causing undue alarm. Voting correspondent Miles Parks explains what’s causing the unease — and whether it will impact turnout.

A preview of the post-Trump GOP? A co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus says the group was “MAGA before MAGA was cool.” So what happens when the man behind MAGA leaves the White House? Congressional reporter Eric McDaniel unpacks how the influential group of conservative lawmakers is looking to transform.

SCOTUS blocks Trump-backed Missouri map: In a case watched across the country and as voting begins in the midterm elections, the Supreme Court on Friday blocked a congressional map in Missouri that was aimed at netting Republicans another seat in the U.S. House.

— Lexie Schapitl, NPR Politics producer

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Going Deeper: The Data Center Backlash Reshaping American Politics

AFP via Getty Images, Claire Harbage/NPR/Collage by Emily Bogle/NPR

With striking speed, the widespread debate around data centers has become a fault line in American communities, cutting across political parties, splitting constituencies and forging unexpected alliances.

In city halls and county commission chambers, east to west and north to south, people are squaring off against their local representatives.

NPR correspondent Scott Neuman takes a closer look at how these data centers have “upended politics as we know it.”

— Lexie Schapitl, NPR Politics producer

The Shot: A Family Affair

Stacia Bourne (left) and her mother, Mary Jo Galusha, spend time with Bourne's children at Galusha's home in Newark, Delaware. Galusha, a retired schoolteacher, moved from Idaho to assist her daughter's family. With rising childcare costs in the U.S., grandparents are offering increased support.

Lianne Milton for NPR

When Stacia Bourne and her husband were thinking about having a second child, they worried they couldn’t afford it.

Their first child, George, was born in 2020 and started daycare when he was 2. "The cost for childcare for him is about the same as our mortgage," said Bourne, University of Delaware psychology professor who lives in Maryland.

The prospect of taking on the expense of another child gave the couple pause. Then Bourne's mother, Mary Jo Galusha, 67, made an offer: If Bourne wanted to have another baby, Galusha said, she'd retire and relocate from Idaho to the East Coast to help provide childcare.

Bourne’s family isn’t alone. NPR’s Joe Hernandez reports that more families are turning to grandparents for help in the face of astronomical childcare costs.

— Lexie Schapitl, NPR Politics producer

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