Two-thirds of voters say the country is on the wrong track ahead of the 2024 election

“While the wrong track data is now under 70% for the first time since September 2022, it is still a terrible 65% for the party in power,” Horwitt said. “Related, the cost of living remains the dominant issue, and the share of voters who say their family’s income is falling behind is the highest we have recorded at 66%.”

Views of the countries’ direction do fall along party lines, with 92% of Republicans saying the country is on the wrong track, compared to 36% of Democrats and 70% of independents. 

McInturff pointed to the pessimism about the country’s direction as one of the factors explaining the relatively low levels of enthusiasm about the election. Asked to rate their interest in the election on a scale of one to 10, 65% marked themselves a 10, or “very interested” in the election. That is a 10-point drop from the same point in the 2020 election. 

NBC News surveys have found steadily high rates of voters saying the country is on the wrong track for years — and especially since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020. And this pessimism has spelled trouble for the party that controls the White House. In the four elections since 1992 when the incumbent president’s party lost the White House, on average 66% of voters said the country was on the wrong track, according to NBC News polling. 

Harris is not the incumbent, but she is part of the current administration. But Harris does have an advantage over Trump when voters were asked which candidate better represents change, with 47% saying Harris and 38% saying Trump in the poll. 

The national NBC News poll was conducted Sept. 13-17 of 1,000 registered voters — 870 of whom were reached via cellphone — and it has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.