CNN data analyst Harry Enten says President Donald Trump is dragging down Republican Senate candidates in six battleground states Democrats hope to win to flip the chamber in November — and Trump will bear the blame if Democrats retake the majority. Democrats need to pick up four of the six to help turn the Senate blue.

“Donald John Trump is an anchor dragging down these Republican candidates across the board,” Enten said. “If they lose the Senate, it will be because of Donald Trump becoming so unpopular, especially on the cost of living.”

The issue of affordability will “drag those Republicans down and boost the Democrats to a Senate majority,” he added.

According to polling Enten cited, Trump is underwater in Alaska, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, and Maine — and on affordability, he is down by double digits in those six states.

“If Democrats are going to take back control of the United States Senate it will be in large part because of one man and one man alone,” Enten said. “And it is this man right here, Donald John Trump, because he is an anchor, he is an anchor, on Republicans running for the United States Senate.”

Enten compared Trump’s popularity in 2024 to recent polling in those six states. Just two years ago his net approval rating was plus eight points. Now, it is negative 11 points.

“In 2024, on average, he won those states by eight points,” Enten explained. “And most of them he won by double digits. But look where he is now on his net approval rating. Down down, he goes into the Ohio River. Look at this, he’s at minus 11 points. It’s a nearly 20 points switcheroo in the negative direction.”

“So Donald Trump across the board, across the board, in each of the six key Senate states is now underwater in all of them, despite winning in five of six of them.”

“Why have the people in these states so turned against the President of the United States in five of the six of these that he won? It comes down to the cost of living.”

Enten showed that Trump is underwater on affordability — voters’ number one issue — by 22 points in Alaska, 21 points in Texas, 24 points in Iowa, 26 points in Ohio, 29 points in North Carolina, and 36 points in Maine.

If affordability remains an issue in November, “it will drag those Republicans down and boost the Democrats to a Senate majority.”

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In a wide-ranging discussion spanning recent Supreme Court decisions, the direction of the Democratic Party, and corruption, longtime Democratic political strategist James Carville shared his fear for the future of the nation.

“I’m really scared for the United States,” Carville declared on his Politicon podcast with Al Hunt.

Carville explained that “four people on the Supreme Court … don’t believe in birthright citizenship,” which is “as clear as a bell, is right there in the Constitution.”

He was referring to the decision this week that overturned President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. Some appeared dismayed that the decision, which is based on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was not unanimous.

“I, frankly, was very depressed by that Supreme Court final couple days,” Hunt added. “I mean, the narrative, which is what they wanted was, well, they called balls and strikes.”

“I mean,” Hunt continued, “birthright citizenship was enacted by constitutional amendment, in 1868, the 14th Amendment, and, you know, suddenly Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, and really Brett Kavanaugh, say, ‘Hey, you know, we’ve been wrong for 170 years,’ or whatever it is.”

Carville explained that the 14th Amendment “says that people who are born here are citizens thereof.”

“It’s not a … They didn’t do you a favor. They didn’t do you a favor, it wasn’t some act of objectivity.”

“They don’t believe in the 14th Amendment,” Carville lamented. “They don’t believe in any of the Reconstruction Amendments. They never have, and they have never believed in the First Amendment.”

Ratified after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Amendments are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments that abolished slavery, enacted birthright citizenship, and guaranteed certain equal protections and voting rights.

“Look at just what they doing in the wrecking ball, what the whole thing is,” Carville said.

He then moved to news of President Donald Trump’s financial disclosures this week.

“We know Trump’s made $2 billion since he’s been there,” Carville exclaimed, referring to his recent time in the White House.

“I’m just really fearful for the United States. I mean, in ways that I don’t think I could have ever been. It’s just, it’s beyond awful.”

Trump White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt‘s old congressional campaign still owes creditors more than $326,000 — and they have little chance of collecting, according to a NOTUS report citing a new Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing.

The debts of the campaign, from 2022, are largely from supporters who donated more than federal law permits. The total of those excessive contributions amounts to more than $210,000. NOTUS reports that federal law requires campaigns to not spend those funds, but Leavitt’s campaign currently has no cash on hand.

Leavitt, a congressional candidate from New Hampshire, lost her 2022 race to Democrat Chris Pappas. Her campaign has made no progress in raising funds to retire those debts, NOTUS notes, according to her committee’s filing.

Many political campaigns carry debt — sometimes hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars — for years after the election, NOTUS reported. “But the Leavitt campaign debt is different, since a significant portion requires refunds for contributions that exceeded the legal limit by hundreds or thousands of dollars.”

While an FEC complaint was filed in 2022, there’s been no update.

The FEC “has been unable to take enforcement action of any sort since May 1, 2025, when the campaign finance regulator entered a de facto shutdown after losing the minimum number of commissioners to perform such high level duties.” Trump has nominated two new commissioners, but they are awaiting Senate confirmation, and no hearing has been announced.

The New Hampshire Bulletin last year reported that “campaigns are required to repay donors anything over the limit, which at the time was $2,900 per election, within 60 days, per FEC regulations. Leavitt’s campaign appears to not have done that based on this disclosure.”

Last year, OpenSecrets reported that by law, “federal political candidates are not personally liable for their committees’ campaign debt,” and her campaign’s “options for making creditors whole are limited.”

Candidates like Leavitt could “personally contribute money to their campaign committee, which in turn may pay people and companies owed money. But federal records indicate that this is rare.”

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