They hate both U.S. parties. They could swing the midterms

You're a double hater. Double hater. I don't trust either side. They're not really doing anything to actually help people. Not a lot of redeeming qualities on either side at this point. It's kind of a mess. They hate both parties and yet they still vote and could swing the midterms. According to Pew Research Center, in 1994, it was about 6% of Americans who felt this way. But now, it's roughly a quarter of the electorate. And pollsters tell us they tend to be found in swing states, which is why we're here in Arizona. Fultown Scottsdale is in Arizona's swingiest district. There's double haters who live here. There's also a fair number visiting from other states, all eager to talk. I don't like what either political party is doing right now. I can't sleep at night thinking that if I vote this way that I've done the right thing, or this way that I've done the right... I mean, both parties have a lot of things they need to work on. I think right now it's a frustrating time in our country where... We don't want to have candidates that we want to vote against. Bring us some candidates that we can vote for. I don't know, I get annoyed by both candidates. I think they play more with the emotion. I think both sides have gotten so extreme on the spectrum. And I kind of live in a world where I don't think everything is so black or white. I don't know, it kind of bothers me that people stick to one side to a T. You know, like, I only vote blue, I only vote red. I think the real life is more nuanced than that. I think that both of them are agendad. I don't think that they actually listen to the public. I think they're out of touch with the individual needs of the actual constituencies. Double haters helped boost Donald Trump to victory in 2016 and 2024. Exit polls are split on how they voted in 2020. Some say they went for Biden, others for Trump. But this summer, a pre-midterms poll left little doubt how double haters were leaning, favouring Democrats by 26 points. Well, there's a few leaders in the Democrats that... I believe that they're on the take, so to speak, mainly it's contributions, but I think it highly affects their opinion and their vote. And then the other side is just totally unreasonable. I feel like both can, has their pluses and their downsides of course. I feel like one's louder than the other. And I believe that they're both unconscious in their own ways and entrenched in their ideologies and unwilling to communicate across lines and there should be more collaboration and mutual understanding. To find out more about double haters, we hit the highway to Tucson to meet up with a professor who studies them, and she happens to be Canadian. What do you think of the term double haters? I was talking to somebody here who felt like it was pejorative, but do you think it captures something, or is it fair? Well, I mean, listen, I think people sometimes don't like to use the word hate. You know, you're a little kid, you don't use the word hate. But I think it's a pretty succinct way of expressing how people feel. And Americans are really fed up. I think a lot of the vitriol and the hostility that you see in the media, a lot of the sort of craziness you hear from elites, does not represent the American voter. Americans are pretty moderate. They're pretty civil. There's not a lot of inter-party tension when you look at just people on the street. I mean, I'll talk to international reporters who are like, well, Democrats, Republicans, are they fighting? Are they bullying each other? Um, and no, when we ask people, how do you feel about members of the other party, just regular people, they feel perfectly fine towards them. It's, the hostility is directed to people in Washington. Right. Not towards each other. Not towards each other. So what's the difference then between a double hater and an independent? Well, an independent is someone who won't publicly identify with a party. Now, a double hater is just simply someone who doesn't like either party, and those can be independents, Democrats, or Republicans. Do you see this changing anytime soon? Well, it's been going up, so the trends suggest that it will continue. But I do think, you know, candidates, especially here in Arizona, are starting to realize they need to reach across the aisle and express a more civil... image a civil campaign if they want to win back voters. And that theory tracks with what these double haters have to say. You know they're missing basic values like be kind to one another it's biblical so I you know if you put God at the center and then worked on all this political stuff it would change the political landscape. I mean just the way that they try to hurt each other with the campaigns that they have. I just don't like The slander of others, and hateful, especially to the public. The negativity is really what brings it down, I think. Bernie Sanders is the only person that came close to that for me. Yeah. I'm going to start crying right now. Because I thought he would really give everybody hope, because everybody, I mean, I saw people from all sides, the whole spectrum of political ideology. Come together with a vision and a real hope that something was going to change. And then I felt that got stolen from him. I don't really see me liking it either way. Yeah, but so when you vote, how do you make a decision if you hate both parties? How do you decide where that mark goes on the ballot? I thought you just flipped a coin. At this point. Are you a double hater? I hate both parties. I mean, let's be clear. I am a clear ownership of that. I left the Republican Party. I was a lifelong Republican. And I left in 2017 when the president threw John McCain under the bus. And I'm like, it's just not me. I'm still actually a registered Republican. You know, if you talk to Republicans, I'm just a big old tax raising liberal. You talk to Democrats. I've got horns growing out of my head because I must have, you know, worked for Republicans that they consider evil in the past life. So I'm double hated. So then how do you strategize and try to win somebody who's basically turned off of both parties? Well, it's interesting because I think part of it has to do with the fact. that they generally push back against the party that's in power. Communicating with them, we often try to ensure that we're giving them something to vote for. Because they're not just haters in that they hate both parties. A lot of them are dissatisfied with their choices, don't like both parties. But in our research of independents, one of the things that we found is that they also want to think for themselves. They don't want to be part of a group that tells them what to do. They're also issue-driven. So the other way we talk to those haters that hate Both sides is about the issues that they care about and that whoever is aligned with that issue that can get them to move towards the issue or the person. I think what I would do is I'd try and create an aspirational narrative that addresses, like he says, issues that they care about. Again, some of those ideas echoed by our double haters. For me, it's all about follow through and action. It's about having an integrity, saying that you have an agenda. Following through with that agenda, owning your part if it doesn't come to fruition, you know, instead of passing the buck and blaming and projecting that onto other people or other circumstances and environments. Treat people well and you keep it fair and you just state the facts about what you're going to offer the public and then they can decide what the best candidate is to vote for. I wonder what the parties need to do to sort of win you back or to make you feel differently about them. I guess the biggest thing that's hurting us is the division. You know, united we stand, divided we fall. I mean, everybody's so polarized, but the bottom line is is that we are The power, we're looking to change things. And when the sun sets on the November 3rd midterms, maybe double haters will have used that power to make changes, getting them closer to a place where they maybe won't fall in love, but at least in like with the parties again.