Two recent polls conducted by liberal-leaning organizations, NBC and CBS, agreed that national enthusiasm for the Democratic Party — even among its own self-identified supporters — is at the lowest level in nearly three and a half decades.
The NBC News survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted by Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates and Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies between March 7-11 found that only 27% held positive views of the party, with just 7% reporting "very" positive views. . . the worst approval rating since 1990.
As Jeff Horwitt observed, "With these numbers, the Democratic party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted."
The CNN poll conducted by SSRS between March 6-9 from a random sample of 1,206 U.S. adults revealed similarly sad tidings for Democrats.
CNN reported that 55% of overall respondents said they have negative views of the Democratic party, including 38% who say those views are "very" negative, compared with 49% of GOP voters saying they view their party negatively, and 39% positively.
Among the American public overall, the Democratic party’s favorability rating stands at just 29% — a record low in CNN’s polling dating back to 1992, and a drop of 20 points since January 2021 when President Trump left his first term of office.
Nearly 20% of Democratic voters say they have negative views of their party, while 10% of Republicans say the same about the GOP.
Those sour Democratic survey opinions may soon become even more bitter given that both polls occurred prior to rancorous division within their Senate leadership ranks over passage of a GOP-authored funding bill, whereby a negative voting majority outcome would make them responsible for causing a politically painful government shutdown.
Much of that internal angst and anger is being heaped upon Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., along with nine other Democratic senators who sided with Republicans to pass the bill.
Schumer has reportedly canceled a signing tour for his new book due to "security concerns" arising from backlash involving protesting liberal activists within his own party ranks.
When NBC’s poll asked at the beginning of Trump’s first term whether Democratic voters wanted representatives who would "make compromises with President Trump to gain consensus on legislation" or "stick to their positions even if this means not getting things done in Washington," they favored compromise by a 59-33 margin.
Those numbers have since flipped, with two-to-one Democrat voters now favoring combative resistance, 65-32.
The CNN poll similarly showed that most Democrats, along with Democratic-aligned independents (57% to 42%), favor leaders who will block Republican agendas, rather than working with the GOP majority to get some Democratic ideas into legislation.
Other than being against popular Trump policies and his strongly unified GOP congressional support, what pool of candidates with appealing visions and proven track records might such obstructionist leadership be drawn from?
As noted by uber-liberal MSNBC, "The three living Democratic ex-presidents haven’t been heard from since Trump took office. Former Vice President Kamala Harris has been mostly invisible."
Consider, the presidential ambitions of Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., are clearly no secret, neither do his attempts to appear more palatable to moderate voters. He's been chatting it up with conservative commentators on his new podcast. That could be costing him credibility with his progressive pals as well as with appropriately dubious conservatives.
According to the CNN poll, when asked in an open-ended question to name the Democratic leader they feel "best reflects the core values," there was no consensus nor moderate candidate whatsoever.
More than 30% didn’t offer a name in response, with one respondent answering, "No one. That’s the problem."
Ten percent of Democratic-aligned adults named Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with 9% former Vice President Kamala Harris, 8% Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and 6% House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Another 4% each named former president Barack Obama and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, with Schumer joining a handful of others at 2%.
Although those who described themselves as liberal, and those younger than 45, with one in six naming Ocasio-Cortez, no Democratic leader polled in the double digits among older adults and moderates.
So far, this dearth of competition bodes well for 2026 midterm GOP prospects to pick up some vitally important House gains.
Only three Republicans were elected to 2024 congressional seats in districts that Kamala Harris carried, there are 13 challenged Democrats sitting in districts President Trump won, with half of these in Hispanic majority trending districts.
Another 21 vulnerable Democrat seats are in districts Trump lost by less than five percentage points.
Let's not forget, complacency is the enemy of successful outcomes.
Although weakened and leaderless, fully expect desperate Democrats and aligned compliant media to double down on combative opposition both along election trails and in halls of Congress.
More encouraging, while Republicans who reach across the aisle with open hands can expect only clenched fists in return, Democrats now also face internally disruptive cage match battles over control of their own party.
Here, the NBC and CNN surveys reveal a common irony that a steadfast majority of Democratic voters favored representatives who put partisan agendas above Republican reforms over their own policy failures that lost them the White House and congressional majorities by sweeping electoral and popular vote margins.
Let’s hope that they hold to that losing strategy.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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