CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten highlighted on Wednesday how President Donald Trump has reshaped the American electorate by expanding the share of Republican voters. Speaking on CNN News Central, Enten noted that despite Trump holding a minus-10 net approval rating among independents and a staggering minus-78 among Democrats, he maintains a plus-three net approval overall, according to his own polling aggregate.
The key driver behind this, Enten explained, is Trump’s overwhelming plus-84 approval rating among Republicans, who now make up a larger share of the electorate than Democrats, according to CBS News polling. “Donald Trump and the Republican Party has changed the electorate. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s take a look at party identification. Democrats versus Republicans,” Enten said. “You go back to 2017, five points more of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans. You go to 2021 when [former President] Joe Biden was starting out. Look at that. Six points more of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans.”
“But look at what’s happened in February of 2025. Look at this: Republicans, there are more Republicans in the electorate than there are Democrats. Republican plus two,” he continued. “So Donald Trump and the Republicans have remade the electorate. They’ve turned some people over from being Democrats or independents to become Republicans. New folks have entered the electorate who are more Republican leaning.”
A Gallup poll published in January 2024 found that party identification was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans at 27%, marking a historic low for the Democratic Party, the Daily Caller reported. Enten noted in December that “Trump gained more among voters under the age of 25 than any other age group. ”
“If you think of young people as being Democrats, while they may still lean Democrat, not in any way in the same numbers that they used to just even four years ago, Donald Trump doing considerably better among younger voters,” data reporter said at the time. Meanwhile, pollster Frank Luntz said Monday that voters who previously supported Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but switched to Trump in 2024 are reacting positively to the swift actions of his new administration.
“They’re reacting to it because they love the pace of change. They were very fed up over the last four years. They wanted action. They wanted results. They looked at prices. They looked at affordability. They looked at immigration. And they didn’t see anything happening,” Luntz said. “They still don’t like what he says, but they like what he does.”
