Only 8 states back Trump days before midterm elections

With vital midterm elections looming in a few days, President Donald Trump's popularity continues to struggle among Americans, with his net approval sitting positive in only eight out of 50 U.S. states, according to the latest tracker.

According to the latest Civiqs state-by-state tracker, Trump continues to have a negative net approval rating in 42 states, including all six states where swing Senate races are coming down to the wire: Alaska (-25%), Michigan (-26%), Maine (-29%), North Carolina (-18%), Ohio (-18%) and Texas (-20%).

The president's unpopularity has continued to sink his approval numbers, even to the point that he has negative numbers in reliably red states like Kentucky (-13%) and South Carolina (-10%).

Trump remains in the positive in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming, all states he carried in the past three presidential elections.

Of the states that still back him, Wyoming remains the president's strongest state, with his net approval rating at 14%. Meanwhile, Kansas has an even net approval rating, with 46% both approving and disapproving of Trump's job performance.

Trump approval by state

Halfway through his second term, Trump's unpopularity and struggling net approval rating have cost him several states that previously supported him.

A spooky time for the president

Heading into the midterms, Trump's approval rating continues to struggle.

On Friday, a new Emerson College poll found the president's approval rating at 37%, the lowest he has seen in Emerson College polling and a two-point drop from his previous low of 39%, which he saw in the pollsters' September, July, June and May surveys.

According to the same poll, Democrats led Republicans by 10 percentage points in a generic congressional ballot, signaling that a big blue wave could be on the horizon in the coming days.

"With about 5% still undecided, most of whom are independent and half disapprove of Trump, Democrats' congressional ceiling could be higher than the poll reports," Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Only 8 states back Trump days before midterm elections

Reporting by Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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This story was originally published October 31, 2026 at 3:03 AM.