EXCLUSIVE: New Poll Shows Swing District Voters Prefer 'Outsiders' to Boring Centrists
Survey shared with Zeteo has a sample skewed towards Trump voters but shows strong support for Israel is the least appealing candidate trait. Plus, is Trump about to pull his controversial AG nominee?
On this day in 1975, labor leader Jimmy Hoffa was reported missing. Believed murdered by the mob, his remains have never been found. Donald Trump has boasted of doing business with a man said to have committed the killing.
Good morning, friends! Prem here. I don’t know about you, but I find that it’s becoming increasingly clear that Twitter pundits and the DC-NYC media establishment are very far off the mark on the political atmosphere in the U.S. From Zohran Mamdani’s New York victory on, the pundits’ flailing attempts to ignore, dismiss, or undersell each outsider win have grown more and more desperate. And the more they dig their heels in, the further away from reality they get.
Well, now Zeteo has exclusive polling that shows how far off they really are! We’ll dig in – before digesting a congressional standoff over top Trump toady Todd Blanche.
Rage Against the Machine
New polling of 18 toss-up U.S. House districts, shared exclusively with Zeteo, shatters conventional wisdom. In particular, it shows that independent voters and even self-proclaimed moderates are largely not looking for the archetypical “moderate” candidate, and are not even particularly dissuaded when alternative candidates they may support are labeled by opponents as too far left.
The polling was commissioned by the Working Families Party and surveyed general election voters. In 2024, the sample voted for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris, 48-45.
The survey found that voters in the 18 toss-up districts (identified by the Cook Political Report) have a fierce appetite for candidates who challenge the system. Eighty percent felt that elected officials care more about wealthy donors and powerful interests than about people like themselves.
Respondents were read two candidate descriptions.
One was “an experienced elected official with a long record of voting for practical reforms that provide more services and help for average Americans, works with business and unions to find a balance between their interests and is funded by both large and small business as well as established organizations and party donors.”
The other was “a political outsider who says the system is broken. This candidate calls for major changes to policy that would dramatically shift resources from corporations and billionaires to working-class people, says they will confront party leaders, and is powered mainly by small donors and volunteers.”
And who did they prefer?