'This is the breaking point': GOP pollster says shutdown has hurt Republican 'brand'

One longtime Republican pollster and messaging guru is warning that the government shutdown is having an impact on both parties, and that Americans may soon lose faith entirely in democracy.

During a Monday segment on CNN, Frank Luntz commented on the upcoming gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as the mayoral election in New York City, arguing that candidates focusing on "affordability" over ideology — like Democrat Zohran Mamdani — were likely to prevail. When CNN host Boris Sanchez asked how the elections could impact the politics of the shutdown (which will officially become the longest government shutdown in history on Tuesday night), Luntz observed that it was difficult to determine the winner of a battle in which both parties' public images have suffered.

"This is the breaking point, when you don't pay our men and women in uniform and they have to go without their their weekly paychecks. And you start to have people who cannot afford their food and fuel, then it starts to have an impact," Luntz said. "Then people start to say, why is this happening? I believe that the shutdown is politically motivated. I believe that if they wanted to, they could find common ground, but they choose not to. And that has hurt the Republican brand, the Republican reputation. Their numbers are down."

"Everyone is being hurt by this," he continued, reminding viewers that the Democratic Party's approval rating has also taken a turn for the worse. "Everyone's credibility and respect and looking at the government and the public just looks at this and says: 'Why? Why can't you find some agreement? Why can't you give? Why can't you cooperate?' And that's going to be a very big question Wednesday and Thursday when this election is over."

Luntz also lamented that mid-decade redistricting battles have left a bad taste in the mouths of voters across the country. He noted that while Republicans started the fight by redrawing congressional district lines in Texas and elsewhere, Democrats have fought back through initiatives like Prop 50 in California and efforts to counter GOP redistricting in other reliably blue states.

"It's going to undermine the faith and trust that we have in democracy. And I think it's one of the worst things that could be happening right now," Luntz said. "So you've got a government shutdown. You've got inflation, affordability, and now you have redistricting. And I look at this objectively as someone who measures public opinion, and it is frightening how low these institutions, their credibility, how much they've fallen and how the lack of belief and faith and trust in our democracy seems to be hitting an all-time low."

"I'm hoping that the people who engage in this process pay attention, because we're reaching a breaking point, and it's coming," he added. "And after that breaking point, who knows? Who can predict what happens when the public finally says, to hell with you all? And that's where we're heading right now."

Watch the segment below: