Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz suggested Monday that Donald Trump is playing with fire in his efforts to boost GOP voter turnout in the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump has repeatedly urged his supporters to pretend he’s on the ballot in November to mobilize voters who turned out for him in presidential elections.
Appearing on “CNN This Morning,” Luntz said Trump is trying to combat an “energy challenge” for GOP voters, noting how there’s nearly always “a historical advantage for the party out of power in the midterms.”
“Here’s the issue. When [Trump] is on the ballot, his people come out, they participate,” he said. “They did in the on-year elections, 2016 and 2024, and they did not in 2018, and they did not as much even when Joe Biden was the president in 2020, for the 2022 election. So that’s what he’s trying to do.”
But Luntz pointed out that support for Trump “is not as strong today as it has been in the past,” amid disastrous polling numbers.
“So it’s a very dangerous strategy,” he said.
Luntz said the political landscape has shifted considerably since Trump won back the White House in 2024.
“Make no mistake, we’re not in the same election,” he said, noting how voters right now are frustrated with the affordability crisis, Trump’s war with Iran and “they do not like the style and the ugliness.”
Luntz predicted “a challenge for GOP candidates,” but said that if Trump succeeds in turning out his supporters, “we can have an upset.”
“But right now, there are an awful lot of people who can’t wait to vote, and they want to send a message to this administration and the people in Washington, D.C.,” he said.