Newsweek, October 2026
President Donald Trump’s Midwest approval stands at 38 percent against 57 percent disapproval in an October New York Times/Siena poll, leaving him 19 points underwater with this group for the first time in his second term. The president’s party usually loses ground in midterm elections, while Republicans are defending their congressional majorities on November 3. Senate candidates in competitive Midwestern races such as Michigan, Ohio, Iowa and Kansas must now persuade dissatisfied voters to judge them separately from the White House.
Political scientists and Republican strategists told Newsweek that economic pressure was damaging Trump across the Midwest, although GOP figures said strong candidates could still distance themselves from the president. Costas Panagopoulos, a distinguished political science professor at Northeastern University, told Newsweek that Trump’s policies have hit Midwestern farmers and working-class communities “especially hard.”
