Three-quarters in new survey say US headed in the wrong direction

Roughly three-fourths of Americans are saying in a new poll released on Wednesday that things in the United States are going in the wrong direction, a sentiment that is supported by majorities in both parties.

A new Politico-Morning Consult poll found that 74 percent of respondents believe that things in the U.S. are on the wrong track compared to 26 percent who say things are headed in the right direction in the country.

Broken down by party, 52 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents and 94 percent of Republicans polled voiced a bleak outlook. 

Nearly identical percentages of respondents between the age brackets of 18 to 34 years old (75 percent), 35 to 44 years old (75 percent) and 45 to 64 years old (76 percent) said the things in the country were headed in the wrong direction. The poll found that 72 percent of those aged 65 years and older felt similarly.

Broken down by gender, the results fare similarly: 72 percent of men and 76 percent of women say the U.S. is headed the wrong way.

While a majority of respondents gave the job President Biden has done in office a thumb’s down — 56 percent — respondents were almost split over which candidate they would vote for if the election for Congress in their district was held today. Forty-four percent said the Democratic candidate, while 42 percent said the Republican candidate.

The poll demonstrates that Americans are largely upset over the state of the country, and the majority are dissatisfied with the president’s job currently. But it seems less clear how those sentiments will impact their votes when it comes to the midterms.

Working against Biden and Democrats’ favor is high inflation, supply chain issues and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, among other issues.

The Politico-Morning Consult poll was conducted June 10-12 with 2,005 registered voters surveyed. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.