Only three in 10 Republicans say best days are still ahead for US: poll

Just three in 10 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents surveyed in a new poll say they think that the best days are still ahead for the United States.

The CNN survey, taken earlier this month, found 70 percent of Republican respondents think America’s best days are in the past. 

It’s a sharp charge from September 2019, when Republicans controlled the White House and the Senate. At the time, those in the party reported feeling more optimistic about the country’s future: 77 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the best days of the nation were ahead and just 18 percent said those days were behind them. 

When Republicans controlled the House and Senate under President Obama in 2016, 43 percent of Republican respondents said America’s best days were ahead, and 49 percent said those days were behind.

Though the GOP was able to take control of the U.S. House in last year’s midterm elections, Democrats held on to the Senate and Republicans lost key races in a number of states and districts.  

Conducted March 8-12, the new CNN poll surveyed 1,045 Republicans or Republican-leaning independents and had a margin of sampling error of 3.8 percentage points.