A majority of U.S. registered voters, 56%, say they plan to use their vote in this year's midterm elections to send a message about President Donald Trump. That includes 25% who say their vote will be a sign of support for the president and 31% whose vote will express their opposition to him. Fewer voters in June, a combined 43%, planned to send a pro- or anti-Trump message with their vote this fall.

The latest results are based on a Sept. 17-23 Gallup poll of 1,308 U.S. registered voters, conducted as the political world has been focused on the fate of Trump's Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh when he was a teen were first made public on Sept. 14 and have since consumed the confirmation process. The same poll finds the American public reporting near-record enthusiasm about voting this fall, with Republicans and Democrats about equally enthused.

Roughly two-thirds of Democratic and Republican registered voters intend to send a message about Trump with their vote, with almost all Democrats who are doing so opposing Trump and almost all Republicans supporting him.

Fewer independent voters, 42%, plan to use their vote to comment on Trump, with more sending a message of opposition than of support (25% vs. 17%, respectively).

Since June, greater proportions of voters in all party groups view their vote as a message about Trump. The percentage of Republicans wanting to express support for Trump with their vote is up 12 percentage points, while there has been an 11-point increase in the percentage of Democrats using their vote to oppose him. Among independents, the percentage planning to use their vote to oppose Trump has gone up seven points, while the percentage wanting to send a message of support is up three points.

Voters' use of their midterm vote to communicate their opposition to the sitting president is not unusual, historically. In the past three midterm election years -- 2006, 2010 and 2014 -- more voters in the final poll before the election said they intended to register their opposition to the president than to send their support for him. In 1998 and 2002, years in which the incumbent president was popular, more voters said they were supporting than opposing the president with their midterm vote.

The six-point deficit for Trump in midterm voting, with more sending a message against than for him, is smaller than the 13-point deficits George W. Bush and Barack Obama had in 2006 and 2014, respectively, but similar to the eight-point deficit for Obama in 2010.
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