CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten demonstrated on Wednesday how President Donald Trump has reshaped the American electorate by increasing the share of Republican voters.
Enten said on “CNN News Central” that Trump holds a plus-three net approval rating overall, despite having a minus-10 net approval rating among independents and a minus-78 approval rating among Democrats, based on his own polling aggregate. However, Trump boasts a commanding plus-84 approval rating among Republicans, who now represent a larger portion of the electorate than Democrats, Enten pointed out, citing CBS News polling.
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“Donald Trump and the Republican Party has changed the electorate. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s take a look at party identification. Democrats versus Republicans,” Enten said. “You go back to 2017, five points more of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans. You go to 2021 when [former President] Joe Biden was starting out. Look at that. Six points more of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans.”
“But look at what’s happened in February of 2025. Look at this: Republicans, there are more Republicans in the electorate than there are Democrats. Republican plus two,” he continued. “So Donald Trump and the Republicans have remade the electorate. They’ve turned some people over from being Democrats or independents to become Republicans. New folks have entered the electorate who are more Republican leaning.”
A Gallup poll published in January 2024 found that party identification was split evenly between Democrats and Republicans at 27%, a historic low for the Democratic Party.
Enten noted in December that “Trump gained more among voters under the age of 25 than any other age group. ”
“If you think of young people as being Democrats, while they may still lean Democrat, not in any way in the same numbers that they used to just even four years ago, Donald Trump doing considerably better among younger voters,” data reporter said at the time.
Pollster Frank Luntz said Monday that voters who previously cast ballots for Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who later supported Trump in 2024 are responding positively to the rapid pace of his new administration.
“They’re reacting to it because they love the pace of change. They were very fed up over the last four years. They wanted action. They wanted results. They looked at prices. They looked at affordability. They looked at immigration. And they didn’t see anything happening,” Luntz said. “They still don’t like what he says, but they like what he does.”
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