Campaign

The Hill’s Campaign Report: Trump’s job approval erodes among groups that powered his 2016 victory

by Jonathan Easley, Julia Manchester and Max Greenwood - 07/06/20 5:01 PM ET

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.

We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail.

LEADING THE DAY:

President Trump is struggling to hold on to some of the core groups of people that helped deliver him the White House in 2016.

The latest data from Gallup finds Trump’s overall job approval rating at 38 percent, down from his all-time high of 49 percent, which he reached in early May.

Even worse for the president — his job approval rating has declined among the key voting blocs that supported him in 2016, including independents, white people, men, voters without a college degree and older people.

Trump’s job approval rating

Independents: 33% (-6)

Men: 46% (-7)

Whites: 48% (-9)

Whites without a college degree: 57% (-9)

Ages 50 to 64: 43% (-9)

Over 65: 47 % (-4)

In 2016, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by double-digits among men, white people, white people without a college degree and seniors. Trump and Clinton effectively split the independent vote.

More bad news for Trump: The only other two presidents whose job approval rating was in the 30s at this point in the election cycle — George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter — both lost their reelection bids.

Gallup had to go back to 1948 to find an instance when a president who won reelection despite having a similar job approval rating to Trump. That year, Harry Truman won a second term despite only 40 percent of voters approving of the job he was doing in July.

Perhaps the only bright spot for Trump in the new poll is that the GOP is sticking by him. Ninety-one percent of Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing, up from 85 percent last month. Only 2 percent of Democrats approve, making it the largest partisan gap Gallup has found for any president in history.

FROM THE TRAIL:

Biden’s campaign is advising its surrogates to call out Trump’s attacks as a “desperate” — and ultimately ineffective — attempt to compete with the former vice president at a time when the president’s polling numbers are eroding. “Despite the breathless coverage each new Trump attack gets, this endless rotation of the same debunked smears isn’t the product of strategic genius, it’s a sign of myopia and desperation as each successive attempt backfires, re-elevating a massive Trump liability while leaving his campaign scrambling to find something new,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, wrote in a memo sent to surrogates on Sunday. The Hill’s Rebecca Klar has more.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can prohibit their Electoral College representatives from disregarding voters when casting their ballots in presidential elections. The case stems from the 2016 presidential election, when a handful of electors cast their votes for people who did not win their states’ popular votes in a failed attempt to deny Trump the White House. Harper Neidig reports.

PERSPECTIVES:

Rich Lowry: Media defining patriotism as white supremacy.

Jeet Heer: A shattered nation isn’t buying Trump’s nationalism.

Scott Goodstein: Will Twitter make @RealDonaldTrump a one-term president?

Jessica Tarlov: Biden benefits from an enthusiasm gap, not the other way around

Kim Wehle: Celebrities should steer their star power to get out the youth vote

CONGRESS AND THE STATES:

Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) reelection campaign rolled out her first television ad of the cycle on Monday, highlighting her stances on U.S.-China relations. You can watch the ad, dubbed “All Over” here. Meanwhile, her Democratic opponent Theresa Greenfield’s campaign rolled out ads in a number of rural Iowa newspapers, hitting Ernst over her record on ethanol in the state.

Democrats are within striking distance of retaking the Senate majority in November, while Republicans are facing an increasingly difficult electoral map as Trump’s sagging poll numbers threaten to drag down vulnerable GOP incumbents. With the addition of Sen. Steve Daines’s (R-Mont.) seat to the Cook Political Report’s list of tossup races last month, Democrats have another opportunity to pick up a seat that just a few months ago appeared likely to stay in Republican hands. At the same time, Democrats are eyeing a handful of other seats that could come into play later this year. Here’s a look at the Senate seats most likely to flip this year from The Hill’s Max Greenwood.

POLL WATCH:

GALLUP – TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL

Approve: 38%

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING – MAINE PRESIDENTIAL

Biden: 53%

Trump: 42%

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING – MAINE SENATE

Gideon: 46%

Collins: 42%

TRAFALGAR GROUP – PENNSYLVANIA PRESIDENTIAL

Biden: 48%

Trump: 42.7%

MONEY WATCH:

Democrat Cal Cunningham raised $7.4 million in the second quarter of 2020 for his bid to unseat Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in North Carolina, setting an all-time quarterly fundraising record for a Senate candidate in the state. The record was previously held by former Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) who raised $4.8 million in the third quarter of 2014, the same year that she lost reelection to Tillis in what became the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history up to that point. Max reports.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), who’s challenging Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) for his Senate seat, pulled in $7.7 million in his first full fundraising quarter on the campaign trail, his campaign said on Monday. Bullock launched his Senate bid in early March, rattling Daines’s reelection prospects. His campaign will report a cash reserve of more than $7.4 million when Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings are due later this month.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

July 7:

New Jersey primaries

Delaware primaries

July 11:

Louisiana primaries

July 14:

Alabama primary runoffs

Texas primary runoffs

Maine primaries

Aug. 4:

Arizona primaries