Two Georgia voters show the split in the 2026 midterm base

Two Georgia voters who both backed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election have cast their ballots for the 2026 midterms in opposite directions. This split illustrates the current challenge facing the president and his party.

Gerald, who voted for Trump two years ago, remains a loyal supporter. He gave the president an A+++ on his performance. On the first day of early voting for Republicans, he selected Mike Collins for Senate and Rick Jackson for governor. He described his ballot as red all the way down, noting he even wrote his own name in for a seat where only a Democrat was running unopposed because he refused to give a Democrat his vote.

Wally represents the other side of the coin. He has rated the president an F in every check-in since March. Wally cited inflation as his top concern and expressed little hope that a single politician or election can fix it. He voted early for Democratic Senate incumbent Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms. He described his vote as a rejection of Trump and the MAGA movement. He also gave both parties in Congress an F, saying they are stealing money from the American public and that the country needs wholesale change.

Gerald and Wally are part of NPR's Swing Shift project, which tracks swing voters in swing states. All participants in the study voted for Trump over the past decade, with most supporting him in 2024. NPR agreed not to use their full names to allow them to speak freely without professional or personal repercussions.

In the week before Election Day, the group’s assessment of Trump’s performance aligned with national polls. Most voters were unhappy or underwhelmed, frequently citing the war in Iran and high energy prices. Only two of the 11 tracked voters said they were happy with the president’s second term. Theresa, a Pennsylvania voter who switched from Biden to Trump in 2024, gave the president a C-, noting his claim that the Iran war would last only a few weeks.

The group is divided on how to translate their feelings about the president into votes for down-ballot races. In Pennsylvania, three of four voters who supported Trump in 2024 plan to vote for Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro for re-election. Stephen, a voter in the competitive Pennsylvania 1st Congressional District, plans to keep Republican incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick in office while supporting Shapiro for governor. John, a Philadelphia voter who backed the Republican in the gubernatorial race, described the state of the country as anxious and predicted gridlock if Democrats win the midterms.