Obama's popularity meets a tight Michigan Senate race
Harry Enten's polling breakdown shows the former president's advantage with independents, as Democrats turn to him for a final campaign push.
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Obama 'crushes' Trump in polling as both make midterm pitch
Things we can learn from the video
Press to jump
- 0:26Enten shows Obama with positive net favorability and Trump with negative ratings, particularly among independents.
- 1:44A displayed poll finds 55% consider Obama the better president, compared with 37% for Trump.
- 3:28Saenz reports from Detroit, where Obama campaigns for Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
- 6:16Rally clips contrast Trump's claim of national strength with Obama's criticism of the president's decisions.
- 6:41The panel examines Democrats' reliance on Obama as a closing campaign figure.
- 13:38A Michigan Senate polling graphic puts El-Sayed at 49% and Republican Mike Rogers at 47%.
Barack Obama has a substantial popularity advantage over Donald Trump in the surveys Harry Enten presents. The Michigan Senate contest where Obama is campaigning, however, remains narrowly divided.
That contrast runs through a report from the United States' Cable News Network (CNN), combining polling analysis, campaign speeches and a panel discussion about how much either president can do for his party before the November 3 midterms.
Enten shows Obama with positive net favorability both overall and among independents, while Trump's ratings are negative in both groups. The gap is especially pronounced among independents. Asked who has been the better president, 55% of respondents choose Obama and 37% choose Trump, according to the poll displayed in the segment. Another survey Enten presents places Obama first among the presidents Americans most admire, ahead of Trump, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
The report then moves to Detroit, where correspondent Arlette Saenz follows Obama campaigning for Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers. Obama, who served as president from 2009 to 2017, frames the election as a chance to reject the Trump administration's record.
"After 10 years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence... you get to say enough is enough," he tells the crowd.
Trump offers a sharply different economic message in footage from Georgia: "Our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time." But the report also describes him acknowledging Republican difficulties there, telling supporters that a Senate victory would be "somewhat of a shocker."
In the discussion hosted by Audie Cornish, media analyst Sara Fischer questions what it means that Democrats still rely on Obama as their closing campaign figure in battleground races. The panel also examines Trump's attacks on El-Sayed and the Democratic nominee's response: "He can just go on and call me senator after November."
The Michigan polling graphic shown near the end puts El-Sayed only two points ahead of Rogers. Obama's personal popularity is the segment's clearest polling finding; whether his appearances can help deliver that Senate seat is the campaign question it leaves open.
An American epidemiologist and politician who is the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat in the 2026 election.
More on Wikipedia ›A Republican who represented Michigan’s 8th congressional district in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2015. He chaired the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015.
More on Wikipedia ›Published on Trari
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The numbers
The report drew about 960,000 views since yesterday. Its polling comparisons concern the presidents' popularity, while the Michigan graphic measures a separate Senate contest.
💡 Test your knowledge
In which year was Barack Obama first elected US president?
Obama won the 2008 presidential election and took office in January 2009.