Dems Battle Brand Issue With Voters Before Midterms

Internal polling of voters in battleground districts revealed that Democrats have an uphill battle to repair their image of being out of touch with the working class, Politico reported Tuesday.

The polling, conducted by the Democrat group Navigator Research, will be shared at a conference in Virginia on Wednesday as Democrats begin preparations for the 2026 midterm elections, according to the report.

At issue is that a majority of voters in battleground House districts say congressional Democrats are "more focused on helping other people than people like me," including 55% of independents who said that, according to Politico.

"The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people's challenges," Molly Murphy, a pollster who worked on the research by Navigator, told Politico. "Even though voters are critical about [President Donald] Trump and some of the things he's doing, that criticism of Trump doesn't translate into trust in Democrats. The trust has to be earned."

Further, 56% of those surveyed said Democrats are not looking out for the working class, according to the report; 39% said Democrats value work.

"We've always had the stigma of being the 'welfare party,' but I do think this is related to a post-COVID feeling that we don't care about people working," Murphy told Politico. "How can you care about working people if you don't care about work? It's going to be really hard in the midterms if voters don't think we care about work."

A post-election survey in November showed swing voters criticized Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris for focusing too much on "cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class." Trump's presidential campaign ran an ad that aired more than 15,000 times saying, "Kamala is for they-them; President Trump is for you."

That attitude among voters lingers, according to the Navigator Research internal polling, which showed 69% of swing district voters say Democrats are "too focused on being politically correct" with 51% calling the party "elitist," according to Politico.

Those metrics put a spotlight on Democrats' messaging challenge of "'what and who we care about,' and you don't answer that with a policy list," Murphy told Politico.