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Wake up, babe! New polling from Pew Research Center just dropped, and unsurprisingly, there’s a huge enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats this midterm election. 

In fact, Democratic voters are more likely to have given this election cycle “a lot of thought” than Republicans by 14 points, and they are 17 points more likely to be “extremely motivated” to vote this year.

Also, among Democratic voters, 78 percent say it “really matters” who takes Congress, up 9 points from GOP supporters. 

But deep (deep) in the numbers, who supports the GOP breaks along racial lines, yet again. In fact, the only racial group in America that is still bullish on Republicans is white people.

Pew found they still support the party in power at 44 percent, compared with 37 percent backing Democrats. 

As for literally everyone else, they are backing the party not actively rounding up immigrants and shooting citizens, with 51 percent of Hispanics, 70 percent of Black Americans, and 56 percent of Asians backing Democrats.

Only 18 percent of white people claim to not know which party to vote for, compared to 25 and 23 percent of Black and brown voters.

Things also broke interestingly along age lines, with only a majority of voters ages 50-64 supporting the GOP staying in power at 45 percent. Only 39 percent of these Gen Xers support a Democratic takeover.

Everyone else, even seniors, leans toward the Dems, with 44 percent of voters 65 and up supporting Democrats compared to 41 percent planning to vote Republican (15 percent of seniors remain unsure of who to vote for).

So what does this mean?

While 63 percent of voters say Trump plays a big role in how they vote, including 44 percent who see the midterms as an opportunity to vote against the president, polling isn’t a guarantee of anything. Especially when it involves Trump.

He was behind in the “polls” in 2016 and 2024, yet he emerged victorious. 

Even though only 39 percent of Republicans say they’re happy with the state of the nation, down from 54 percent at the beginning of this year, even though a majority of Americans consider the future of our democracy a major priority at 73 percent, there is no guarantee white voters will do anything else besides vote Republican on Nov. 3rd. 

They’ve all but said as much in a recent story by The Guardian.

Sharon Anderson, a retired, 70-year-old “MAGA Republican” from Tennessee, sees nothing but blue skies and rainbows in America.

“I’m very optimistic,” Anderson told The Guardian. “This country’s been through worse and she’s always came out on top. I don’t think that there’s a better country in this world. I don’t think there’s a more powerful country in this world. As far as the best in leadership, I think we have it. As far as goals and policies that this country should strive for, I think Donald Trump has those in place.”

It’s important to remember that GOP voters are more likely to only consume right-wing news. That means they are only getting a small picture of what is happening every day in our communities. They aren’t seeing, reading, or hearing what most Americans are. They’re in a bubble, just as so many white progressives were caught off guard when Trump won in 2016 and 2024. Our country exists in silos. We consume separate news and live separate lives within very different realities. Social media and tech also don’t help, as algorithms and AI chatbots reinforce people’s worldviews instead of challenging them. 

So when some in the media predict a Democratic landslide, remember on the GOP side enthusiasm may be down but hearts and minds have likely remained unchanged. How both sides turn out the vote will be what determines who takes Congress on November 3.

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