* Pritzker campaign press release…
New polling confirms that Co-Presidents Donald Trump and Elon Musk are incredibly unpopular with Illinois voters who hold intense unfavorable views of both men and their agenda. Both Donald Trump and Elon Musk are underwater by double digits with Trump at -14 favorability, and Musk even less popular at -18. Independent voters also view both negatively by double digit margins.
The extreme agenda Trump and Musk are forcing on the nation drive the negative views from Illinois voters. More than half of voters surveyed report being “extremely concerned” about actions taken during the first weeks of Trump and Musk’s administration. Among the most unpopular actions are ending an initiative to lower the cost of prescription drugs and eliminating government programs that provide healthcare, meals on wheels, and childcare.
* From the polling memo…
A new survey of likely 2026 voters in Illinois finds that Illinoisans are highly unfavorable towards both President Donald Trump and Elon Musk and find most of the actions taking over the last few weeks extremely concerning.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are both similarly unpopular among Illinois voters. Donald Trump is underwater by double digits with Illinois voters at -14 favorable (42% favorable/56% unfavorable), as is Elon Musk, at -18 favorable (38% favorable/56% unfavorable). These negative attitudes are intense, with half viewing either very unfavorably (50% for Musk, 49% for Trump). And though Democrats are the most negative on Musk and Trump, independents view them both negatively as well. […]
Illinois voters find the recent actions of Musk and the Trump administration to be deeply concerning. A majority of voters find each of over a dozen actions taken by the Trump administration in recent months concerning, but most are seen as “extremely concerning.” As shown in the table below, the actions of greatest concern to voters include them ending an initiative to lower the cost of prescription drugs (57% extremely concerning, rated a 5 on a 1 to 5 scale), eliminating government programs including healthcare, meals on wheels, and child care (56%), eliminating all members of the aviation safety board (55%), and pardoning all the January 6th Capitol rioters (54%).
ABOUT THE POLL
Global Strategy Group conducted a survey of 800 likely 2026 voters in Illinois between February 5 and February 9, 2025. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.5% and was conducted via telephone and text invitation to web-based survey. Care has been taken to ensure the geographic, political, and demographic divisions of the population of likely voters are properly represented.
I skipped one graphic because I couldn’t fit it on this page, but if you click here you’ll see that Elon Musk’s favorable rating is underwater among Black voters by 61 percent and Trump’s is underwater with Black voters by 39 percent. However, among all Democrats, Musk’s favorable rating is underwater by 93 percent and Trump’s is underwater by 91 percent.
Interestingly, no Latino results were provided.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 1:31 pm:
The Illinois GOP would be real concerned about these numbers if their electoral strategy ever involved a sincere effort to try to appeal to a majority of Illinois’ voters.
If Trump actually succeeds at a lot of what they’re trying to do the Illinois GOP’s legislators are going to discover that quite a lot of their constituents were dependent on federal spending to maintain their quality of life.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:20 pm:
Candy Dogood +1
- thechampaignlife - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:21 pm:
Not great for ILGOP, but it is sadly not horrible for Trump. Given how blue Illinois is, the GOP being +82 and overall being -14 shows a deep divide (albeit with a superminority) even in a state Trump is not trying to win.
- clec dcn - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:21 pm:
We are a deep blue state and this is not surprising. Naturally JB will make it more than it is, but he has momentum now so go with it. I have my doubts about the pole and accuracy but not a statistics wizard.
- Ernest T - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:33 pm:
What are JB’s numbers?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:35 pm:
===What are JB’s numbers? ===
Subscribe.
- SpiDem - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:37 pm:
Was there a subscriber update with the poll, or is that coming tomorrow, Rich?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:39 pm:
===Was there a subscriber update with the poll===
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/19/subscribers-only-supplement-to-today%e2%80%99s-edition-417/
- @misterjayem - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:51 pm:
“I have my doubts about the pole and accuracy but not a statistics wizard.”
So just a conspiracy theorist?
– MrJM
- clec dcn - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 2:56 pm:
@Mrjm, No but it depends on where the numbers were polled and the geography. In collar counties and Cook it will be much different than southern Illinois and we don’t know the particulars of the polling. Poles could be propaganda it is not like a new concept.
- H-W - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 3:01 pm:
In the meantime, as more funding gets pulled for projects in the suburbs (see Isabel’s afternoon update regarding Will County), we can anticipate that a few Republicans are going to recognize that voting for austerity at the federal level translates into austerity at the local level in ways unexpected.
- MyTwoCents - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 3:41 pm:
Taking a quick look at 538 to compare to national numbers, it’s about what you would expect, Trump’s approval rating is lower than nationally. The most recent national polls are between 44% and 50%.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/
Using Trump’s numbers as 1 comparison, I’d say the poll is probably in the ballpark of what you would expect for Illinois.
- Whimper - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 3:45 pm:
These says, Illinois is such an outlier nationally, except for most of down state.
Polls are polls.
Stay strong JB and comrades
- Leslie K - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 5:26 pm:
Candy Dogood @1:31 — I think your observations here are spot on.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Feb 20, 25 @ 5:41 pm:
I think Candy Dogood is right, and I will take it a step further.
These remind me of Bruce Rauner numbers, and that is probably not good for the GOP.
Republicans loved The Idea of Bruce Rauner, while Independents were more mixed and Democrats despised him.
As The Reality of Bruce Rauner set in, support among independents fell and he eventually lost the backing of his own party as well.
I saw national polling with Trump at 90% approval with GOP, 37% with Independents, and 4% with Democrats. He has given up on Democrats obviously, it seems unlikely he is going to get more popular with Independents as time wears on and the honeymoon wears off, and so he has to maintain his hardline, ideological appeal to Republicans.
The problem is that Ideologies might sound good in a Tweet or a press release but, it turns out, are not very practical when it comes to governing, expecially governing a large and diverse populace and economy.
A lot of people rely on government to function, and when it does not, like streets not getting plowed of snow, or budgets not psssing, or planes crashing in our skies, they tend to notice.