Independent voters who have turned away from Trump—how will they affect the midterms?

The Forbes Breaking News host says that, with the midterm elections a month away, they will ask Open Primaries president John Opdycke who the independent voters holding the deciding votes are, amid Republicans' narrow advantages in the House and Senate, and what power they will wield on November (month 11) 3. He explains that independents, at 48% according to CNN, are the largest and fastest-growing group, and that they are not centrists: their ideologies vary, including conservatism, socialism, and libertarianism, while they are united by values favoring cooperation between left and right rather than partisan warriors. He identifies a fair playing field and full participation as their core values, criticizes the two parties as private clubs that require membership to grant primary voting rights, and says independents are angry at divisive politics that cannot combine approaches from the left and right to deliver solutions such as the border security and pathways to citizenship that 90% want. He says that swinging between the two parties over 30 years has been a way to send messages about the Iran war, tariffs, ICE, and diesel at 6.75 dollars per gallon, and argues that Trump is the most unpopular president ever but Democrats fare even worse, leading votes against the incumbent administration to be mistaken for support for Democrats. He explains that state dynamics differ, as seen in the DSA surge, victories by moderate Democrats, and Iowa's Rob Sand receiving 55% support, so voting Democratic does not mean becoming a Democrat; independents are open to partnerships for institutional reforms such as open primaries and ending gerrymandering, rather than joining a party. He says Republicans in 2026 are downplaying economic concerns as Democrats did in 2024, and that broken promises, including the Iran war, the trade war with Canada, and Biden's reversal on seeking another term and cancellation of primaries, have increased distrust of both parties. He reports that, according to Gallup, independents accounted for 45% in 2025, twice the share of either party, leaving them powerful enough to decide outcomes but powerless to receive anything in return. Against a backdrop of young people and Latinos becoming independents and a desire to continue the experiment in self-government, he says possible political realignments are being discussed, including surges by independent candidates in 5 states and the possibility of a caucus encompassing 25% of lawmakers. All directional outlooks are the speaker's conditional judgments, not definitive short-term price predictions.