CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings slammed liberal panelist Maria Cardona’s claim Monday that voters are “sick” of President Donald Trump as Democrats and Republicans are neck-and-neck in the upcoming special elections.
Both parties are gearing up to compete for two U.S. House seats in Florida and a seat in Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court this week in what is seen as the first referendum on the Trump administration. Jennings pushed back against Cardona, who said that even Republican voters are tired of Trump, by pointing out that the president’s 50% approval rating is higher than the portion of the popular vote, 49.8%, that he won in the 2024 election.
“Voters are sick of Donald Trump and MAGA and [Elon] Musk’s overreach,” Cardona said. “They are sick of being betrayed by what the president promised in the elections which is bringing down and reducing the costs of groceries, gas and rent. They are sick of the economic turmoil and the tariff taxes that Trump is trying to impose on them and we’re going to see that voter backlash. We have already seen it in the last special elections, Democrats have won 12 out of the last 13 special elections, flipping Republican seats that Donald Trump won by double digits. I think we’re gonna see a lot of that tomorrow.”
“Turnout in a special election is vastly different than a turnout in a midterm or even a turnout in a presidential. To Maria’s point about people being sick of Donald Trump, I’d just point out that the CBS poll yesterday, he has a 50% approval rating which is higher than the portion of the vote he got in the November election,” Jennings said. “I don’t think people are really sick of it.” (RELATED: Scott Jennings Says GOP Must ‘Come To Grips’ With ‘New’ Electoral ‘Reality’)
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Jennings said the Republican Party needs to work on turning out more low propensity voters to vote even when Trump is not on the ballot.
“I do think a couple of things are true. Number one, the Republican Party is grappling with a new reality,” Jennings continued. “We have a lot of voters in the party that do not vote regularly. They’re low propensity voters, they turned out for Donald Trump, they like to vote when he’s on the ballot, but even in the November election, you saw people show up, vote Trump, and then leave the rest of [the ballot] blank. One of the things the party has to do is condition those people to show up even when Donald Trump is not the person they’re voting for.”
A CBS News/YouGov poll from Sunday found that Trump holds a 50% overall job approval rating and a 50% disapproval rating. An NBC News poll from March 16 found that Trump held a high approval rating of 47% and a 46% personal favorable rating. His immigration policies have proved to be widely popular with Americans, with 58% approving of his program to deport illegal immigrants.
Voters are not currently satisfied with Trump’s handling of the economy, with only 48% saying they approve of his economic handling while 52% disapprove, according to the CBS poll. The president also scored a 56% disapproval rating on his handling of inflation, with an overwhelming majority of 64% stating he is not doing enough to tackle high prices.
His immigration policies, however, have proved to be widely popular with Americans, with 58% of voters in the poll approving of his program to deport illegal immigrants.
Since the resignations of former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to become his first attorney general nominee and Mike Waltz to be national security adviser, Democrats are hopeful that they can snatch the two seats in Florida’s First and Sixth Congressional Districts. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida-based GOP strategist Ford O’Connell have expressed confidence that Republican Florida State Sen. Randy Fine will secure the seat in the sixth congressional district.
In Wisconsin, Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) overseer Elon Musk have publicly backed conservative Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, who is slightly trailing his liberal opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, by 48% to 43% according to Musk’s Building America’s Future nonprofit group.
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