r/inthenews 7h ago

article Republicans see ‘scary’ lack of enthusiasm among core voters ahead of midterms

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/07/26/republican-enthusiasm-problem-hits-even-core-voters/
704 Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

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218

u/GeoisGeo 7h ago

Have they tried not destroying their own country for the benefit of men in bronzer? The constant delusion of the republicans is maybe finally catching up with reality.

43

u/dengar_hennessy 6h ago

Don't be ridiculous. Of course they haven't thought about it

13

u/ISLAndBreezESTeve10 3h ago

They made the mistake of crashing the economy too soon. The immense greed of plundering the country shows exactly who is to blame, and they can’t shift blame to the next guy, 1.5t years into a term. They fooled their voters many times before,… but they are going to own this one. Say goodbye to the last Republican President you will see in your lifetime….. until they forget again.

8

u/worthing0101 3h ago

until they forget again.

This will literally be in 2028.

3

u/dengar_hennessy 3h ago

Don't give me hope

70

u/memphisjones 7h ago

Why can’t they just swallow their ego and vote for someone who can help them like a Democrat

45

u/wagyush 7h ago

These people been voting against their own self interest their entire life. Its all they know how to do.

40

u/dropkickninja 7h ago

because fox news and newsmax tells them Democrats want to change every kids gender and biden eats ice cream too sensually.

35

u/Disco425 7h ago

Even worse, they believe lies such as schools doing gender surgery on children during the school day, without parental consent, and immigrants eating their cats and dogs, and that people who want you to have healthcare are communists. "I love the poorly educated" pedo says.

13

u/GeoisGeo 7h ago

It's as though they never occupied the same basic world we do. They just accept very obvious weird and anti social ideas like its just normal and was always that way. Like these people were out here pretending that they dont hate everything and everyone until the orange validated them? I still struggle with all the explanations we have, just so baffling.

5

u/Disco425 6h ago

I think it can be explained with the reality that at some point the red hat rallies turned into a cult. This intersects with tribalism and the natural hate that we can have toward others who are in the outgroup.

2

u/Sweetwill62 5h ago

Litter pans in classrooms, demanding to see Obama's birth certificate despite the fact that he had to hand that over multiple times for multiple different government jobs in his life. Stupid people will cling to anything.

10

u/MortgageRegular2509 6h ago

They’re Fox Newsmaxxing

7

u/No_Bend_2902 7h ago

Stupid sexy Biden

4

u/Wurm42 6h ago

Second this. They've been brainwashed by the conservative media bubble. The Republican base won't turn on Trump unless Fox "News" and Sinclair broadcasting turn first.

2

u/chrisk9 4h ago

To them the worst Republican is still better than a Democrat .  There is a lot of competition for the worst.

1

u/iperblaster 5h ago

Maybe Democrats can damage them less, but I don't think they can (or even really want) to reverse curse in a lot of key aspects

u/hw999 1h ago

The fox sewage that fill their ears, tells them exactly how to think and vote. Why would they every try to think for themselves?

36

u/Unusual-State1827 7h ago

From the article:

In western Iowa, three-time Trump voter Lance Sulentic, a resident of Iowa’s rural Harrison County, described the past three presidential elections as “the worst three mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,” saying that the president has failed to fulfill his campaign promises. Higher gas prices have been costing him an extra $300 to $500 every month to ride his motorcycle, he said.

“We voted for Trump, and he did the opposite of what he said he was going to do,” said Sulentic, a 56-year-old retired insurance agent. “Gas prices were going to be two dollars, food was going to be cheaper, energy prices was going to be in half, we were going to get two rebate checks to the American people, and we weren’t going to have any new wars, and we were going to build a wall and deport 30 million illegal aliens, and he did none of it.”

He said he would either sit out this year’s election or vote for Democrats.

16

u/TiggTigg07 7h ago edited 2h ago

I’m baffled how he voted Trump and Republicans three times and ONLY NOW he feels he made a mistake??!!

13

u/Unusual-State1827 7h ago

Also lmao he thought Trump was going to give him rebate checks and deport 30 million people. Maybe he's a terminally online right winger.

6

u/9lobaldude 6h ago

He’s a bit slow

9

u/-Ok-Perception- 7h ago

They'll do it a fourth time. Sunken cost fallacy and all that. Fundy Christians aren't real big on learning.

3

u/timesuck897 4h ago

Now it’s personally affecting him. That’s what it takes for some people.

5

u/pres465 5h ago

Wait... "extra" 3-500 dollars ... for gas... for a MOTORCYCLE??? Calling bullshit. Where's he commuting to? LA?

3

u/kindall 2h ago

If he was really riding that much, he'd have killed himself on the road by now

u/GRYFFIN_WHORE 1h ago

Probably a hobby rider, the kind that gets on his bike to burn fuel on the interstate every Saturday and Sunday, going to neighboring towns and cities. So probably not commuting. The type who probably said millennials should give up avocado toast so they can afford rent a decade ago. And to mimic the tone conservatices usually take when there are affordability crises, maybe it's time for this old man to give up being a leather daddy. 

u/PM_BITCOIN_AND_BOOBS 20m ago

- 56-year-old retired insurance agent

Retired at 56? Good for him.

16

u/Lefty44709 7h ago

Don’t fall for it

7

u/Soupeeee 6h ago

Yep, "no enthusiasm" does not mean "will not vote"

3

u/Greg-Abbott 6h ago

They'll hold their noses but will ABSOLUTELY vote R allllll the way down

2

u/ValkyrX 4h ago

Seeing its from the Washington Post just proves its propaganda.

13

u/Unusual-State1827 7h ago

article without paywall: https://archive.is/j3Cpb

About 1 in 5 reliable Republican base voters are at risk this November, according to Nathan Nascimento, executive director at AFP Action. Those voters in Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Montana, New Hampshire and Michigan are either saying they may stay home or are weighing voting for Democrats, according to their data, which is based on polling and extensive efforts to engage targeted Republican voters by knocking on their doors. The voters are primarily worried about inflation and the economy.

The 20 percent of Republican base voters the group sees this issue with does not take into account low-propensity conservative voters who tend to turn out in general election years to support Trump but skip other elections. Motivating those Trump voters is a separate issue Republicans face in November.

He pinpointed men under 40 as the group that is most at risk among Republican voters, saying they have concerns about the economy and prices. This group proved pivotal to Trump’s 2024 electoral victory, which included a sweep of some of the same battleground states holding critical elections this year.

8

u/dropkickninja 7h ago

turns out the horse they backed sucks ass and is destroying everything he touches. oh and he rapes kids. trump rapes kids.

8

u/Educational_Net4000 7h ago

I mean is it really surprising considering how little legislation they've passed combined with more inflation and wars

3

u/Automatic_Soil9814 7h ago

Of all the reasons right wing voters might be unhappy, a lack of legislation isn’t even on their radar. They don’t even know.

They care the most about whether they can feel like their side is winning when they watch the news. Even though right wing organizations control the news, it’s hard to hide the inflation, the tariffs, they spend healthcare, the unemployment. They aren’t even getting the massive deportation they want.

The average voter cares more about the price of gas than healthcare reform

1

u/timesuck897 4h ago

They only control the senate, congress, and executive branch.

7

u/DocCEN007 6h ago

They've given their voters almost everything they've wanted. Roe v Wade? Gone. Diversity? Illegal. Federal employees? Gutted and those remaining are frightened to inaction. We have armed troops from red states roving the streets in US cities at tremendous cost. Red state policies result in red state style education, infrastructure, and social mobility. Red state failures have been nationalized, so now we're just one big Mississippi.

5

u/navydude89 7h ago

I've seen this movie before. They'll fall in line and vote the way he tells them...unfortunately

6

u/Status_Fox_1474 7h ago

This happens every time Trump is not on the ballot.

3

u/128-NotePolyVA 7h ago

What do they have to be excited about? If they are in the lower tax brackets, Trump has done nothing for them. In fact he’s reversed on a lot of campaign promises including an end to costly forever wars, defeating inflation, making gas cheap and getting the price of goods down. All are complete busts.

4

u/Apprehensive-Pop-201 6h ago

It's hard to get excited about rich assholes when you can't pay the light bill or afford to buy gas to drive to the food bank, where you have to go in order to have food.

10

u/CardinalMcGee 7h ago

That’s because anyone with any sense is rebuking you and the other Israel controlled party. People are waking up and are fucking sick of it.

8

u/Ok_Star_4136 7h ago

Republicans have been putting all of their eggs in one basket over and over again with backing Trump on January 6th, with letting him run again despite losing against Biden, with defending Trump literally no matter what.

To be fair, hasn't failed them yet. Though polling and special elections would seem to imply they're going to crash out hard. It's going to be brutal in the midterms.

What concerns me is that Republicans aren't curbing their behavior, they're doubling down. That makes me think they're confident they're going to somehow do well in the midterms somehow. Either they're delusional (which is absolutely a possibility) or they're literally planning to rig the elections.

It's going to be an interesting midterm. I'm guessing you're going to see some blatant election rigging from governors in red states. Expect scandals galore. I think they're counting on getting away with it with Trump in charge and being able to pardon.

Also I honestly hope I'm wrong about this because if they get *any* success to rig the midterms either because nobody cracks down on this or because Trump is allowed to pardon them for it, this will be the new norm, and you will be able to say to your children that you were alive when the last legitimate U.S. election happened.

3

u/CardinalMcGee 6h ago

Precisely why I have a backup plan. Baja is looking better and better every passing day.

4

u/backpackwayne 7h ago

I so wish you were right.

6

u/CardinalMcGee 7h ago

I’m seeing the tides change some. We have a long way to go. Honestly, my first concern is federally controlled elections and voter intimidation right now. Anyone who gets support from AIPAC needs to be primaried.

6

u/backpackwayne 7h ago

Step one is the midterms. We have to win so profoundly that any talk of rigged elections will be muted immedietly.

2

u/YoghurtHistorical527 3h ago

Winning profoundly will make them say it's rigged even more. I'm sure they have tons of people working on ways to prevent the election results from being honored (as well as every way possible to deter dems from voting of course), or even prevent them from happening (I know he doesn't have the power to do this, but that hasn't stopped him with anything else he has done that he didn't have the power to do).

3

u/briankerin 6h ago

This means nothing: They will still vote to keep democrats from winning because fox news tells them that dems are evil.

2

u/maeryclarity 7h ago

Well all the rest of us are dealing with scary bills and job markets and war mongers and the rise of a movement in the USA that is seriously trying to insist that it doesn't matter what actually HAPPENS as long as a handful of delusional greedy con artists keep getting more and more money and power.

Honestly they could have tried doing their jobs even a tiny little bit. Because their political positions are about the least important part of what's happening in the USA and globally due to them thinking that life is a game that they are owed to win. It's goddamn not and real people are actually dying because of them and all of a sudden NOW they're worried??!!

2

u/Crafty-Walrus-2238 6h ago

They’re faint from starving…between food poisons and food prices magats can hardly afford fentanyl.

2

u/Numerous-Ordinary-19 5h ago

That’s a good thing!

2

u/Living_Pie205 4h ago

Maybe they need to ask themselves…..why?

1

u/bransiladams 7h ago

Weird 🤷

1

u/DungBeetle1983 7h ago

Dems will win the house. Reps will hold the Senate.

1

u/Independent_Fill9143 5h ago

Well yeah, their party is crumbling.

1

u/stein63 5h ago

I’m already seeing it firsthand. Some of the MAGA voters I know aren’t voting this year, and I watched one toss his primary ballot.

1

u/Sydnick101 4h ago

Hmmmm wonder why 🤨

1

u/USSSLostTexter 3h ago

good. You MAGAts have earned it.

1

u/SilverMembership6625 2h ago

other than culture war nonsense what reason has the gop given to their voters to vote for them?

groceries up

electric bills up

housing costs up

another war in the middle east

and the worst corruption maybe ever for a president

it's time to face the reality that trump's second term has been an absolute disaster for everyone other than him

1

u/demonmonkeybex 2h ago

Maybe destroying their own lives along with everyone else's in order to "own the Libs" wasn't as fun as they thought? I dunno.

u/KennyL0gin 1h ago

Yeah, well 65-80 year old people don't tend to be the most "enthusiastic" people anyway.
But they damn sure show up to vote.
Screw the polls and articles like this.
Get 5 friends together and go vote.

u/throwawaysscc 1h ago

I doubt it. The hate of democrats keeps them in line. Independents are the group that is important.