New Politico Survey Reveals What Actually Motivates Trump and Harris Voters in 2026 Elections

I get asked all the time like, 'how do you put a show together?' And I got asked this for years and years and years and years when we had the radio show. Look, I read a lot, guys. We always used to laugh about like, I don’t read, I don’t read books. I read a lot of articles from all across the spectrum. And I would encourage you to do so as well. I read people all the time that I don’t agree with because it challenges my thinking, and we get segments on the show off of people talking about things that I don’t agree with. And I think it, one, it opens your horizon, expands your way of thinking when you read people you don’t agree with. And it also, in many ways, will harden your own set of core belief systems. And so I do read a lot of publications that people might describe as they lean left or liberal or whatever. Politico is one of them. I think it’s a very interesting national publication. They cover politics and government from across the 50 United States. And Politico had this survey that they conducted about what motivates Trump voters and what motivates Harris voters when they go to vote. So like, if you knew your candidate or you found out your candidate was endorsed by, it could either be a group that backs up a set of ideas or a person, what moves people, especially in these primaries?

Politico Poll Shows Trump Endorsement Still Dominates Republican Primary Politics

And as we said, overwhelmingly, the number one thing that moves Republican voters, Trump voters, is Trump’s endorsement. And this is a rare thing that this far into a guy’s presidency. And look, I basically say we are ten years into now Trump presidency. I mean, because he was president for four, he ran for five years, he was the president for four years, he was in the news the entire time he was not president. He was one of, if not the lead story almost daily, even when he wasn’t president. And now he’s been president again for two years. So we’re basically ten years into Trump. Usually, usually after a couple of years, the juice sort of wears off on a, you know, the president being the guy, especially in a second term. It has not with Donald Trump. And I think one of the things we have to ask ourselves, and it goes back to that segment I was talking about earlier with Thomas Massie and his re-election and where the party is at and what it’s doing in this complete, complete subserviency to Trump amongst primary voters in many cases, is the Republicans did Trump to themselves. I think we need to reinforce that, that the Republicans did Trump to themselves. Trump came to power. Trump took a stranglehold on the Republican Party because people were fed up with the Republican Party. They were fed up with the lies. They were fed up with the deceit. They were fed up with the failure to follow through. They were fed up with the spending, with the growth of government, with the special interests, with the failure to reform the government. Over and over and over again, people were promised, hey, vote for us this time. Hey, we just need that office. Hey, we just need that thing. And the Republicans never delivered. Trump was a response to years of lies from the Republicans. The thing that kind of perplexes me about Trump, though, is he seems to have this, like Teflon, that often cases he doesn’t follow through the same way the establishment didn’t follow through. Like, look at the spending. It’s worse under Trump than it ever was under Bush. Like that is what is very perplexing to me about Trump is like the standard everybody held to the Republicans, to which brought Trump to power, he doesn’t get held to that. Can you imagine the stuff Trump said about affordability the other day? And by the way, that’s going to show up in ads all over the country this fall. It’s going to be in every swing district congressional race across the country. The stuff he said about not caring about affordability, that Iran is more important, not getting the nuclear, that stuff, they’re going to clip it and it’s going to show up in ads all over the country. If Bush had said that about Iraq, people would have lost their minds. And yet, everything Trump does inside of like the Republican primary orbit, he somehow gets a free pass on it. It’s amazing. Like, I don’t pretend to understand. And all the politicians keep lining up behind him. You know, I saw this the other day where they’re still talking about what happened in Indiana. And I saw this was from Micah Beckwith. He was talking about how Trump is the most powerful Republican. His word is this and that. And it’s like, dude, you literally beat the Trump endorsement. What are you saying? You literally, if it would have been that, you wouldn’t have won. I remember this. This is how vivid my memory is. I remember when Trump endorsed Micah’s opponent, Julie McGuire. And the reason I remember exactly where I was, was Micah’s wife called me. She couldn’t get ahold of Micah. This is how close Micah and I used to be. This is why when anybody doubts how pissed off I am at this guy about how egregious his behavior has actually been, when his wife couldn’t get ahold of Micah, she called me. And I remember this. I remember this conversation. I remember standing in my kitchen telling her to calm down. She’s like, well, it’s going to be this. It’s going to be that and blah, blah, blah. And I said, no, it’s not. I said, because Micah has me. It’ll be fine. But Trump, I said, it doesn’t matter. They’re convention voters. They’ve already made up their mind. The Trump endorsement doesn’t mean anything. But yet, even a guy who beat the Trump endorsement now is out selling this line of like, oh, it’s the most important thing. Trump’s the most powerful this. It’s like you literally beat the Trump endorsement. But the Politico survey shows amongst Trump voters overwhelmingly the number one thing that can elevate a candidate. And I will be fascinated if the Republicans go down this fall. Now, maybe they win. Maybe the Democrats are still seen as so bad by so many people that the Republicans win. But I will be fascinated to see if they go down, if this continues to be the gold standard, because part of what Trump brought to the table was finally winning, finally winning the presidency, finally getting past the Obama years. And I think Trump also represented a middle finger from people who were sick of being lied to by the establishment. But if you’re not winning at the polls and if you’re not delivering on the issues, how long do people still vote just on the middle finger to people that they were pissed off at ten years ago?

Growing Anger Over AI, Data Centers, and Tech Companies Is Reshaping Both Parties

I’m going to be fascinated to see it now. Other things in this, and this is where the story gets really interesting. The Trump endorsement thing did not surprise me. What did surprise me is number two, the number two, if a group associated with or candidate being associated with supporting low taxes for business was the second thing that moved people to vote for a Republican, Trump voter to vote for Republican, which was a plus 16. But then third, and this was three and four were fascinating to me. Number three, the number three thing that moved a Trump voter, a candidate being associated and having endorsements related to more regulation on AI and tech companies, more regulation on AI and tech companies was the number three thing that moved a Trump voter. That shows you how much people hate what’s going on with these data centers. That should be a giant red flag to every local government official in our state. And if I were running for public office going forward, I would run against the data centers. By the way, we’re not anti data center here. We want common sense with the data centers. But if I were running for public office, look, I want tight regulations. I want data center policies that work for the taxpayers, that work for the communities, that work for the data centers. Right now, we don’t really have any of that because there’s no framework in our state for these things. There’s no floor, there’s no ceiling. It’s the Wild West, and it’s pitting communities and people in communities against each other. And the data centers against the communities and the data centers and the governments against the communities. It’s a dumpster fire. And people are saying in this poll amongst Trump voters, which is why you see the pushback in Indiana, that the number three thing that would move them, the number three score that moves a Trump voter is a candidate running around or being associated with or having endorsements for regulation on AI and tech companies.

Medicare for All and Economic Messaging Continue Gaining Support Across the Political Spectrum

The fourth most, and this really surprised me, and this should also be a giant wake up call. And what this tells you is how much the media can manipulate people over a period of time. If the media won’t give up and the media won’t give in and in a uniform voice keeps talking about something, they can wear people down. The number four thing a Trump voter, and this is from Trump voters, that moves them on a candidate, is if they support Medicare for all. Medicare for all is Obamacare. And that is now the fourth best thing, statistically, that will move a voter, a Trump voter, to vote for a candidate is if they support Medicare for all. Think about how wildly unpopular Obamacare was when it was instituted, when people in the moment knew about it. I always think about that. Like with Hall of Fame voting, they’ve got this thing called the Veterans Committee for guys who don’t get in when they’re eligible for the Hall of Fame, then old timers can vote for them. And it’s like, why? If the people who saw these guys play for years knew them best, didn’t think they were Hall of Famers, why should somebody 30 years after the fact get to vote for him? Same thing with Obamacare. Think about Obamacare was so unpopular in the moment that the Republicans won, I think, 62 seats in the 2010 midterms. And now, because of the media just pounding it into people and the memory of that. And look, I don’t mean to be crass, but people who were opposing that at the time, the seniors, then some of them literally dying off. It is now the fourth most positive thing at a plus ten that moves a Trump voter. So those are the top things for Trump voters. It’s Trump endorsement, low taxes on businesses, regulating AI and tech companies, and Medicare for all.

Voter Frustration With Establishment Politics Continues Driving Major Changes Inside Both Parties

For Democrats, the number one thing is Medicare for all. That doesn’t surprise me. That’s Obamacare. But number two, the number two thing that moves a Harris voter in terms of endorsements and what they’re affiliated with in their campaign, increased regulation of AI and tech companies. You are seeing, and it’s almost identical. It’s a 15%. So 15%, number two, plus 15 with Democrats, plus 14, number three with Republicans. People are fed up with the data center stuff and the tech companies and the giveaways. They’re pissed off across the board. Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on, or Harris voters and Trump voters probably don’t agree on just about anything. They agree that the AI and the tech companies are totally out of control. They’ve got to be regulated. It’s going to be fascinating to see. If I were a politician, if I were running for something that would be in a general election or even a primary, but we’re on to the general now, I would be leaning all into that. And of course, for Democrats, because for many of them, it is their religion, abortion is actually tied with AI and tech company regulation. Abortion access, increased. Let me rephrase that. Increased abortion access. So there you go.