Voters fear DSA policies in Congress after midterm election

If Democrats take over Congress, Republican voters are worried they’ll move too far to the left and enact socialist policies. If Republicans keep control, Democrats fret about President Donald Trump having unchecked power.

Those are the findings from a new CNBC poll that shows what each side of the political divide fears about the other as the midterm election looms. Republicans in the survey also say they worry about weakened border security and higher taxes under a Democratic Congress. Democrats say they’re concerned about continued Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations and ongoing military efforts in Iran under a Republican one.

“That totally shows the polarization … and the fear that one side is going to completely undo the agenda of the other,” Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist and co-founder of ROKK Solutions, said of the results. “What Republicans are worried about is that Democrats are going to go back to the way it was during the Biden administration.”

The results of the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey — conducted between Oct. 14 and 18 and including 1,000 registered voters — could serve as a warning for both parties after the election. Both Democrats and Republicans have struggled with low favorability amid widespread distrust of the government.

If Democrats lurch too far to the left and adopt Democratic Socialists of America policies, they could squander the gains some forecasts project they could make in many heavily Republican parts of the country, said Lucas Holtz, a senior political advisor at Third Way, a center-left think tank. 

“They should not misread their mandate if they hope to retain the inroads that they’re making this cycle with Latino voters, with working-class voters, who they have been hemorrhaging cycle after cycle,” Holtz said. 

And Republicans should understand that voters in this moment want to change course, Bonjean said.

“Voters absolutely want change from the way things are going now, but they also don’t want to go back to the way things were when Democrats ran Washington,” Bonjean said. “The branding is so bad on the Democratic side, and it’s not great on the Republican side.”

Respondents were able to select up to two of their biggest concerns in the event that Democrats or Republicans control Congress, which don’t necessarily indicate their top electoral priorities. The CNBC survey by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies separately asked people to name the most important issues facing the country. In answering that question, affordability issues ranked highly across the political spectrum, while Democrats and independents also listed government corruption as a top priority, and Republicans listed immigration and border security.

Still, the concerns expressed by voters about what the opposing party might do in office reflect the messages in the political advertising that is blanketing much of the country in the final days before the midterm election, according to Alex…