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The Daily Newsstand · Free, Always
Tuesday, October 20, 2026

A new poll shows what voters are thinking 2 weeks out from Election Day

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Midterm election day is just over two weeks away. What are some numbers on the mind of voters?

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

We begin this hour with some numbers. Fifteen - that is the number of days until Election Day. Two hundred eighteen to 214 - that is the current advantage Republicans hold in the House of Representatives. And 46 - that is how many House seats the Cook Political Report calls competitive in the midterm.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Four is how many seats Democrats need to net to win back the Senate. Here are some other figures on the minds of voters. Thirty-nine percent is the number of Americans who approve of President Trump's job performance. That's according to the latest NPR/ PBS and Marist poll. That's down from 44% when he started his second term.

DETROW: And if you're seeking some scale, how about $10 billion? That is what has been spent on the 2026 elections as of last week, and that is just the money spent on ads - TV, digital radio - not including pizza and doughnuts for the field offices.

SUMMERS: Two dollars and 98 cents is a much smaller sum. That was the average price of a gallon of gas nearly eight months ago, according to AAA's price tracker. Today, a fill-up will cost a lot more. The average price of regular gas is up to $4.30 a gallon.

DETROW: And what's something that a number of Americans agree about this election year? Data centers - people don't like them. In our poll, 58% of voters say the construction of data centers by tech companies will have a negative impact on the country.

SUMMERS: And if this all feels like just a whole lot of numbers, well, we're going to leave you with one more. The next presidential election date is 750 days away.

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