Those are some wicked bad numbers for President Trump in the latest Commonwealth Beacon/MassINC Polling Group survey of likely Massachusetts voters. Red Sox vs. Yankees numbers.
Just two years ago Trump grabbed 36% of the vote here. But his standing has since cratered. His overall favorability here is 25%, worse than the Yankees. Independents (20-70 fave/unfave) can’t stand him. Women (19-73!) loathe him. He’s deep underwater with every demographic except Republicans, all six of them.
It’s no wonder Maura Healey’s re-election pitch essentially fuses Trump and GOP challenger Mike Minogue into a single noun. (Minump? Trogue?) A robust 19% of voters cite voting against Trump as their chief motivation, second only to the cost of living.
Their animus is Healey’s political security blanket. Six in ten voters say dealing with cost inflation has been her least successful area. But when asked to name who’s most responsible for our onerous energy prices, only 13% name Healey, while 32% finger Trump.
Poor Minogue has to run with Trump’s 17 stone dangling from his neck. Only 14% of Healey voters say they’re voting to stop Minogue; 37% say it’s about opposition to Trump.
Our larger-than-life president even drags down GOP Senate nominee John Deaton, one of his party’s most persistent Trump critics, who blames recent vandalism of his East Providence law office on the Democrats’ smearing him with the MAGA label.
MAGA world likes to write off contempt for their hero to “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” but that ignores the obvious correlation between the administration’s 21-month assault on the Massachusetts economy and voter backlash. When you gratuitously defund economic engines like biomedical research, cancel $100 million in education funding, terrorize the immigrant workforce in pursuit of a handful of criminals and repel crucial international tourist traffic, it’s deranged to expect a thank you.
The nationalization of the midterms was bound to happen, but it’s too bad. A contested election with Republican candidates unhampered by the DC meltdown might have been a useful referendum on what kind of state we want to have, and what governing philosophy we think can get us there.
Instead, we seem headed for blowout races and another round of ham-handed ballot questions that yield unedifying results.
If the Trump era keeps on soiling itself, 2028 could be just as bad.
Reactionary, dumbed-down politics got us here. And it’s turning out to be the gift that keeps on taking.
