Nearly half of U.S. adults say they have given “quite a lot” of thought to this year’s midterm elections. This compares with no more than 37% saying the same in the summer months before the 1998 through 2014 midterm elections. Gallup did not measure this in the summer of 2018; however, today’s 48% is already nearly as high as the 54% with the same degree of thought at the end of the 2018 election season. Given that, and the tendency for thought to increase over the course of an election year, it’s likely that today’s figure is higher than it would have been in the summer of 2018.
Public thought about midterm elections increases between the summer and fall of election years, swelling by seven to 27 percentage points in Gallup’s election-year polls since 1998. If that pattern holds, Americans’ attention to the midterm elections this fall could exceed the previous high of 55% measured in October 2010.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member