GOP Pollster Sounds Alarm Over ‘Huge, Huge Problem for Republicans’ Seen In Her Focus Groups

A prominent Republican pollster warned that voters increasingly see President Donald Trump as no different from the political establishment he once promised to upend in a shift she called a “huge, huge problem for Republicans” ahead of the midterms.

Kristen Soltis Anderson sounded the alarm Friday on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt while discussing the issues driving souring public opinion toward the White House.

Anderson told host Kasie Hunt the two complaints that were repeatedly surfacing among voters in her focus groups were persistently high living costs and a growing perception that Trump had failed to “drain the swamp.”

“They feel like they wanted to see a White House that was going to lower the cost of living and they don’t feel that they’ve gotten it,” she said. “And they feel like they wanted a swamp drained, and they don’t feel like it’s particularly drained. They, if anything, feel like it’s pretty swampy.”

The warning comes as Democrats focus on affordability as a major political liability for Republicans ahead of the November elections.

Anderson said concern over political corruption had also risen, although voters defined the issue in different ways. For some, she said, corruption meant “government money being spent fraudulently,” an area where Trump has argued his administration is rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse.”

But she said voters were also increasingly focused on a more traditional definition: “Are people taking money? Are people looking for financial benefits in order to get influence?”

That perception, she noted, poses a particular danger because it cuts against one of the president’s longstanding political appeals: “A lot of voters in my focus group say, they always thought Donald Trump was different. He was different from other politicians.”

“And now,” she added. “They’re seeing what’s going on in Washington these days, and they feel like he’s just become normal, just like all the other people they didn’t like.”

She concluded: “And that’s a huge, huge problem for Republicans.”

Watch above via CNN.

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