October 29, 2025 11:41 AM UTC

Republicans in Trouble as Polls Keep Getting Worse on Shutdown Blame

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• by: Colorado Pols

The federal government shutdown is already the second-longest in U.S. history. It appears almost certain that we will shatter the 2018-19 record of 34 days before Republicans and President Trump finally realize that the majority of Americans blame them for shuttering government services and doubling their health insurance premiums.

As The Hill newspaper reports, reality is slowly dawning on Congressional Republicans:

Republicans are grappling with public polls showing the public places more blame on them, rather than the Democrats, for the shutdown, even as they argue they have the moral high ground in the shutdown fight.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republicans stress that they put no partisan poison pills in a GOP-crafted, House-passed stopgap to fund the government through Nov. 21. Democrats in the Senate have repeatedly blocked that bill as they demand that Republicans first negotiate with them on health care issues, particularly on enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring at the end of the year…

…In the face of public polling, Republicans insist they are the more reasonable party by putting forward a “clean” continuing resolution (CR).

That last line is emblematic of the many, many problems facing Republicans right now. They’re telling each other that they are being reasonable by refusing to negotiate on extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act; the American public is telling them something entirely different.

New numbers from Navigator Research show that Republicans keep losing ground in the battle of public perception:

♦ Americans now blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown by 14 points, up from 10 points last week. [Pols emphasis]

♦ Trump reaches his lowest economic approval in Navigator tracking since 2018.

♦ As SNAP benefits come under threat, Americans look to Trump and Republicans to come to the table to negotiate an end to the shutdown.

One of the more telling numbers in the latest round of Navigator Research polling is this:

The government shutdown is still top of mind for Americans. Three quarters of respondents are hearing at least some news about the government shutdown, similar to 75 percent from our tracking last week. Awareness is slightly lower among independents at 62 percent. This week’s tracking finds a 9-point uptick in awareness among passive news consumers, 66 percent of whom have now heard a lot or some about shutdown.

Those numbers are only going to rise now that people are seeing the astronomical increases in health insurance premiums coming in 2026.

Polling data from Quinnipiac has generally found the same thing:

Among independents, 48 percent think Republicans in Congress are more responsible, while 32 percent think Democrats in Congress are more responsible and 14 percent volunteered that they think both parties are equally responsible.

As USA Today notes, the Republican resistance to renewing ACA subsidies stands in stark contrast to the opinions of everyone else:

Some 73% of Americans polled say they want the insurance subsidies to continue as Democrats maintain, despite arguments that they will increase the federal budget deficit. The numbers show little change from the results of a poll conducted earlier in the month when asked the same question, Reuters reported.

As we wrote on Tuesday, Republicans need to decide how willing they are to face the 2026 election cycle if they refuse to re-open the government while doubling health insurance premiums for families. No other issue combines what are normally the top two issues for voters — the economy and health care — into one whopper of a narrative. There aren’t going to be a lot of non-MAGA voters who are going to vote for a Republican in 2026 even though the GOP is responsible for crushing their family budgets and health care needs.