Just 31% of Republicans said they were confident their ballots were counted correctly and fairly in 2020, while 65% were uneasy—a 34-point deficit. But Republican confidence in the 2022 election soared by comparison, with 58% expressing confidence and 35% feeling uneasy.
In 2022, Republicans’ confidence was 23 points above water, a net swing of 57 points in just two years.
What makes that GOP shift even more compelling is the fact that, overall, Republicans don’t have a sense they are winning at politics right now.
Despite capturing the House in November, just 26% of Republicans said their side had been “winning” over the last few years on the issues that matter to them, compared to 61% who felt the GOP was losing.
Democrats were essentially the exact opposite, with 63% sensing they were winning on their issues over the last several years, while just 22% said they were losing.
Partisans on both sides felt decent about the midterms, with 62% of Democrats saying they had “won” the cycle and 51% of Republicans saying the same.
But overall, Democrats clearly felt more satisfaction over their showing, with 66% saying they were satisfied with the outcome and just 24% dissatisfied.
Meanwhile, only 36% of Republicans felt satisfied with the 2022 outcome, while 54% were dissatisfied.
For the last several years, we have heard Donald Trump, along with many other Republicans, routinely express the sentiment that the only election they could possibly lose was a rigged election. In other words, any time Democrats prevailed, fraud was at play.
That formulation has dominated GOP discourse over 2020 for the past couple years, and any Republican politician who dared admit that Trump actually lost was demonized as a traitor.
So let’s just say it’s satisfying to see a solid majority of Republicans (58%) expressing confidence in the outcome of an election where nearly as many Republicans (54%) expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome.
