Donald Trump’s approval rating has slipped to 35%, according to a new poll, a weak showing that lands as Democrats hold a 51% to 40% edge among registered voters on which party should control the House after the midterms. The numbers arrive just days before Georgia’s 14th Congressional District votes in a runoff election this week for the remainder of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s term.
The race in northwest Georgia has become a small but telling test of the political ground beneath Trump. Shawn Harris was the top vote-getter in the district’s mixed-party primary last month, while Clay Fuller entered the contest with Trump’s backing after the two rallied together there in February. The matchup comes at a moment when Democrats are trying to translate polling advantage into seats, and Republicans are looking for any sign that Trump’s grip on the party can still carry local candidates across the line.
That pressure is sharper because Democrats have already flipped 30 House seats previously held by Republicans since Trump returned to office, while no Republican has taken a Democratic-held seat in that time. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found 51% of registered voters want Democrats to take control of the House in November, giving the party an 11-point lead in a fight that now stretches beyond Washington and into districts like Georgia’s 14th.
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Trump is not responding by softening his approach. On Tuesday, he signed an executive order seeking to limit mail-in voting, directing the Department of Homeland Security to create an approved list of absentee voters and forbidding states from sending mail-in ballots to anyone not on that list. More than 20 Democratic-run states have already sued over the order, setting up another round of legal conflict over election rules just over 200 days before Nov. 3.
That fits the political instinct that has defined Trump’s comeback: discredit the process and cast doubt on its integrity. MS NOW captured the calculation bluntly, saying it almost worked for him in the past. This time, though, the numbers are moving against him. The approval rating is falling, Democrats have momentum, and even in a district with a Trump-backed Republican on the ballot, the broader map suggests the president’s strategy is running into a more skeptical electorate.
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What happens next is clear enough. If Harris wins in Georgia’s 14th, it will add to the Democratic run of flips and deepen the sense that Trump’s approval rating is becoming a liability for his party rather than an asset. If Fuller pulls it out, it will be one of the few signs that Trump can still turn his backing into a win. Either way, the broader test comes on Nov. 3, when voters decide whether the polls are pointing to a House shift or just another warning shot.
