April 09, 2026 12:20 PM UTC

The Trump Effect: New Poll Shows Voters are Mad at Everybody

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• by: Colorado Pols

There has been a lot of ink spilled (er, digitized) in the last day about new polling numbers from the Colorado Polling Institute showing that Colorado voters are feeling pretty glum about whatever subject that comes up.

As Nick Coltrain explains for The Denver Post:

Coloradans’ opinions on the state’s political leaders and on the economy have soured over the past six months, according to a poll released Wednesday.

A clear majority of likely voters — 55% — predicted the economy would worsen over the next year, compared to 46% who answered the same way in a similar survey also conducted for the Colorado Polling Institute in November.

Meanwhile, opinions of some of Colorado’s top elected officials — Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, all Democrats — have grown only more unfavorable. And that fall has largely been driven by disenchanted Democrats.

Chase Woodruff of Colorado Newsline talked with lead pollster Kevin Ingham:

The swings reflect more negative attitudes from Democratic and unaffiliated voters, said Kevin Ingham of Aspect Strategic, one of the polling firms that conducted the survey of 613 likely 2026 Colorado voters.

“For both senators, Democrats’ attitudes have shifted a net 20-ish points in a negative direction towards both (Bennet and Hickenlooper) over the past year,” Ingham said. “We’ve seen similar sized shifts among unaffiliated towards both.”

What’s behind all of this negativity? It seems that you can begin and end that question with one name: Donald J. Trump.

Trump and Congressional Republicans Have Wrecked Everything

President Trump has so thoroughly bungled virtually every important issue since moving back into the White House in January 2025 that his stink is rubbing off on politicians of every stripe. You can draw a straight line between Trump and negative feelings from voters on just about any issue.

Many of the problems that concern voters are related to Trump’s Iran War — particularly rising gasoline and utility costs.

Skyrocketing food and grocery prices are the result of Trump Tariffs and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz (Iran War, again), which is creating more havoc as fertilizer supplies get horked.

Healthcare costs rose dramatically in 2026 because Congressional Republicans refused to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Housing costs aren’t all Trump’s fault; some of that is on NIMBYs and the fact that it is difficult to quickly enact affordable housing policies. But Trump’s policies are absolutely making things worse and he seems to have no realistic solutions. Mortgage rates rose five different times during the first month of the Iran War, just when the housing market was starting to recover.

Colorado voters understand that Trump is a YUGE problem, as Colorado Newsline notes:

Trump — who lost the contest for Colorado’s electoral votes by 11 percentage points in 2024 — remains deeply unpopular in the Centennial State, with just 37% of voters holding a favorable opinion, compared to 61% unfavorable. That’s a more negative view than the figures of 40% favorable and 58% unfavorable that Trump scored in Colorado a year ago.

“Notably, while Democrats and unaffiliateds have always been deeply skeptical of the president, in our polling, this is the first time that we’ve seen his numbers softening among Republicans,” Ingham said.

But anger with Trump has boiled over to other politicians. When the President of the United States is this unbelievably terrible, voters are desperate for solutions. Back to Colorado Newsline:

Ingham said that the trend he’s observed among left-leaning voters is “less about Democrats wanting their party to be more progressive, and more (about) being more aggressive.”

“They’re looking for fighters,” he said. “They’re looking for people who are going to take a sharper edge and a more non-traditional approach to governance and standing up to the Trump administration.”

Voters are so incensed with the state of everything that they aren’t contemplating whether or not a Democratic minority has any real ability to turn the tide. They just want SOMEBODY to do SOMETHING. Well-known Colorado Democrats, from Gov. Jared Polis to Sen. Michael Bennet, end up taking shrapnel wounds from all of the ire directed toward Trump.

It’s (Still) the Economy, Stupid

That famous line from Bill Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign is as relevant today as it was at the end of the last century.

As Bente Birkeland notes for Colorado Public Radio:

A majority of Colorado voters, 55%, predict that the economy will get worse. That’s up from 47% a year ago. They also evenly split on whether the state is heading in the right or wrong trajectory.

“Among those who are comfortable financially, 55% feel that things in the state are headed in the right direction. It’s only 41% of those who say they are just getting by or really struggling that feel things are headed in the right direction,” said Republican Lori Weigel, principal of New Bridge Strategies and one of the pollsters.

She noted that voters have a diffuse top set of issues they want the state government to address. Cost of living ranked highest at 9%.

When the economy is bad, voters have a hard time worrying about anything else. This is another area where Trump will really hurt Republicans — particularly toadies such as Reps. Jeff Crank (R-Colo. Springs) and Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton) who have declined again and again to separate themselves from White House policies. Voters will remember (and will be regularly reminded) that Trump pledged throughout the 2024 campaign that he would lower the cost of everything from groceries to gasoline if elected to a second term. Voters know that the economy is in bad shape, and they are well aware that Trump and Republicans promised something different.

Voters also know that Republicans have complete control of the federal government at the moment; only the most partisan Republicans will buy the GOP spin that Democrats are to blame. It’s true that Democrats control the levers of power in Colorado, but the old mantra that “all politics is local” has shifted on its head in the last decade.

Elections are Still a Binary Choice

Colorado voters may be unhappy with politicians on both sides of the aisle, but they’ll still have to make a choice in November…and they’re itching to make their opinions known.

There’s no realistic third option for any of the big races on the November ballot, so it’s still better to have a ‘D’ after your name than to be associated with the Republican Party in Colorado.