‘Down, Down He Goes!’ CNN Data Guru Says Trump ‘Underwater’ in Key States and Dems May End Up Owing Him a Thank You

CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten argued Democrats may end up owing President Donald Trump a thank-you as his popularity is “underwater” in multiple key states ahead of the midterms.

Enten joined CNN’s John Berman on Thursday to dive into New York Times/Siena survey data released this week on key races in Alaska, Maine, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas, where Democrats are hoping to flip Senate seats. The party would need four seats to regain control of the Senate.

On Wednesday, Enten highlighted that Democrats may have a steep hill to climb in flipping those seats as “the math, simply put, isn’t there,” noting that many of the races are far too close to call.

A day later, Enten dove deeper into the numbers and argued Trump may act as an “anchor” for Republicans and help boost Democrats in those races as he’s “underwater” in each of the states, five of which he won in the 2024 presidential election.

“If Democrats are going to take back control of the United States Senate, it will be in large part because of one man and one man alone. And it is this man right here, Donald John Trump because he is an anchor. He is an anchor on Republicans running for the United States Senate,” Enten said.

The president’s net approval in the six key states has dropped into negative double digits. His net approval averages minus 11 points in those states, but he won them by an average of eight points in 2024. Broken down further, he has negative approvals ranging from one point (Alaska) to 21 points (Maine).

Trump’s net approval is -9 points in Texas and it ranges from -10 points to -14 points in Ohio, Iowa, and North Carolina.

“Look at this. In 2024, on average, he won those states by eight points. In most of them, he won by double digits, but look where he is now on his net approval rating. Down, down he goes into the Ohio River!” Enten said.

Driving this drop in approval is affordability concerns.

“Why have the people in these states so turned against the president of the United States in five of the six of these that he won? It comes down to the cost of living,” Enten said.

He highlighted even worse numbers with cost-of-living approval numbers in the six states ranging from -21 points to -36 points.

“This is why I say that Donald John Trump is an anchor dragging down these Republican candidates across the border,” Enten said. “If they lose the Senate, it will be because of Donald Trump becoming so unpopular.”

Watch above via CNN.

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