{"id":876852,"date":"2025-10-11T00:22:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/poll-more-republicans-say-usa-headed-in-wrong-direction\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T00:22:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:22:23","slug":"poll-more-republicans-say-usa-headed-in-wrong-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/poll-more-republicans-say-usa-headed-in-wrong-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"POLL: More Republicans say USA headed in wrong direction…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) \u2014 Republicans\u2019 outlook on the direction of the country has soured dramatically, according to a new AP-NORC poll that was conducted shortly after last week\u2019s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n

The share of Republicans who see the country headed in the right direction has fallen sharply in recent months<\/a><\/span>, according to the September survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a><\/span>. Today, only about half in the GOP see the nation on the right course, down from 70% in June. The shift is even more glaring among Republican women and the party\u2019s under-45 crowd. <\/p>\n

Overall, about one-quarter of Americans say things in the country are headed in the right direction, down from about 4 in 10 in June. Democrats and independents didn\u2019t shift meaningfully.<\/p>\n

Interviews with Republicans who took the poll suggest that political violence<\/a><\/span> and nagging worries about social discord are playing a role in the notable shift in their mood after a summer scarred by killings of figures on both sides of the political spectrum, although they also mentioned another array of worries, including jobs, household costs and crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time worrying about the worsening political discourse and, now, the disturbing assassinations,\u201d said Chris Bahr, a 42-year-old Republican from suburban Houston. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019d have talked to me two weeks ago, I wouldn\u2019t have brought it up as a main concern but more of a gnawing feeling,\u201d the software administrator said. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been thinking about. But now it\u2019s violence, while before it was just this sense of animosity and division.\u201d <\/p>\n

An unusually sharp drop among Republicans<\/h2>\n

Views of the country\u2019s direction tend to be fairly stable, but major events sometimes shake partisans\u2019 feelings about the state of the country, even when their party is in power. Democrats, for example, were more likely to say the U.S. was headed the wrong way after the Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade<\/a><\/span>, the landmark decision that established a federal right to abortion. Democrat Joe Biden was president. <\/p>\n

But the GOP shift in optimism, especially among younger Republicans and GOP women, is noteworthy for its scale. The drop in Republicans who see the country headed in the right direction is bigger than the decline between October 2020 and December 2020, after President Donald Trump, a Republican, lost his reelection bid<\/a><\/span>. It\u2019s more similar in scope to the decline that occurred in the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Among Republicans younger than 45, the decline is particularly glaring: 61% say the country is headed in the wrong direction, a spike of 30 percentage points since June, the last time the question was asked. <\/p>\n

Mostly, 42-year-old truck driver Mustafa Robinson, a Republican, is troubled by the cost of living<\/a><\/span>, but he has been increasingly bothered by what he wishes was a stronger sense of national unity. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like, you think you\u2019re heading in the right direction with your career and your job, but everything around you is going up in price. It seems like you can\u2019t catch a break,\u201d said Robinson, a married father of three who lives in Delaware County just southwest of Philadelphia. \u201cBut we are also supposed to be united as a country and coming together. And we are not. I\u2019m so perplexed how we\u2019re not on the same page about anything, so bad that these people are being shot.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some express concern about political violence<\/h2>\n

Kirk, who started the Arizona-based political organization Turning Point USA<\/a><\/span> and had been a leader rallying young conservatives for Trump, died Sept. 10 after he was shot during an outdoor event<\/a><\/span> at Utah Valley University.<\/p>\n

On June 14, Democrat Melissa Hortman, Minnesota\u2019s state House speaker, and her husband were shot to death<\/a><\/span> in their in their suburban Minneapolis home in what authorities called an act of targeted political violence. <\/p>\n

In April, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests fled the governor\u2019s mansion in Harrisburg after a man broke into the home and set a fire<\/a><\/span> that caused significant damage. It happened during the Jewish holiday of Passover, and Shapiro is Jewish. <\/p>\n

Last year, Trump was the target of an assassination attempt<\/a><\/span> during an election campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot in the ear<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Worries about political violence aren\u2019t new for many Americans. Last October, an AP-NORC poll found that 42% of U.S. adults were \u201cextremely\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d concerned about the possibility of increased political violence directed at political figures or election officials in the aftermath of the presidential election.<\/p>\n

Trump has blamed the \u201cradical left\u201d for Kirk\u2019s killing and has discussed pursuing progressive groups in response. Without establishing any link to last week\u2019s shooting, he and members of his administration have discussed classifying some groups as domestic terrorists<\/a><\/span>, ordering racketeering investigations and revoking tax-exempt status for some. <\/p>\n

The economy is also a factor for some<\/h2>\n

GOP women\u2019s view of the nation\u2019s course has shifted almost as much as younger Republicans\u2019 view, according to the poll. About three-quarters of Republican women say the country is going in the wrong direction, up from 27% in June. By comparison, 56% of Republican men say the country is going the wrong way, up from 30% in June.<\/p>\n

And not all of the people who think the U.S. is on a worrying trajectory have political violence at the top of their mind. Joclyn Yurchak, 55, from northeast Pennsylvania, ticked off a list of problems she feels have put the United States on a downward path.<\/p>\n

Yurchak, a warehouse worker going back to school for business, says good jobs are harder to find and require longer commutes. She is bothered by illegal immigration, though she believes Trump has begun to make inroads, and worries about criminal drug activity in her area. <\/p>\n

Asked about Kirk and other political targets, Yurchak attributed the episodes to a broader fraying of the nation\u2019s social fabric. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all the violence, not just political. There\u2019s just so much crime in the country. It\u2019s disgusting,\u201d said Yurchak. \u201cNobody has respect for anybody anymore. It\u2019s sad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like others, Minnesota Republican Jeremy Gieske first noted economic uncertainty as the chief reason for his wrong-track opinion, before circling back without prompting to what he called \u201call the political poison.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at each other\u2019s throats,\u201d said the 47-year-old product manager from Rogers, just northwest of Minneapolis. \u201cThis viciousness on both sides. We have villainized others, like we\u2019re on the brink of social collapse. Is Kirk the straw that breaks the camel\u2019s back or sets off a powder keg? It\u2019s on everyone\u2019s mind.\u201d <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Sanders reported from Washington.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The AP-NORC poll of 1,183 adults was conducted Sept. 11-15, using a sample drawn from NORC\u2019s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) \u2014 Republicans\u2019 outlook on the direction of the country has soured dramatically, according to a new AP-NORC poll that was conducted shortly after last week\u2019s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk . The share of Republicans who see the country headed in the right direction has fallen sharply in recent months<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":876853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1234,1731],"tags":[9628,7761],"class_list":{"0":"post-876852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headed","8":"category-republicans","9":"tag-headed","10":"tag-republicans"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}