Democrats remain pessimistic about the future of their party, six months after they suffered setbacks up and down the ballot at the hands of now-President Donald Trump and Republicans.
That’s a key finding in a newly released national poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
According to the survey, only about one-third of Democrats are very or somewhat optimistic about the future of the Democratic Party. That’s a steep decline from last July, when around six in 10 Democrats said they were optimistic.
The Democratic Party has been in the political wilderness since last November’s elections, when Republicans won back control of the White House and the Senate and defended their fragile House majority. And Republicans made gains among Black and Hispanic voters as well as younger voters, all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base.
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The survey, conducted May 1-5, points to an increase in optimism among Republicans, with 55% more optimistic about the future of the GOP, up from 47% last summer.
Since Trump’s return to power, an increasingly energized base of Democrats is urging party leaders to take a stronger stand in pushing back against the president’s sweeping and controversial agenda during the opening months of his second administration. And their anger is directed not only at Republicans but also at Democrats they feel aren’t vocal enough in their opposition to Trump.
And that’s fueled the plunge in the Democratic Party’s favorable ratings, which have hit all-time lows in several new polls so far this year.
According to the AP-NORC survey, only around a third of all respondents have a positive view of the party. The GOP didn’t fare much better, with only around four in 10 adults holding a favorable view of the Republican Party.
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Some top Democrats were sampled in the poll.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the longtime progressive champion and 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nomination runner-up, was viewed positively by roughly four in 10 Americans. But around three-quarters of self-described Democrats questioned held a favorable view of Sanders.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the progressive firebrand who has teamed up with Sanders this year for a series of large rallies across the country, was viewed positively by only three out of 10 adults. Around half of Democrats held a favorable opinion of the four-term representative, who is seen as a possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender.
There are also suggestions that Ocasio-Cortez may primary challenge longtime Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York when he’s up for re-election in 2028.
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Only 21% of adults view Schumer favorably. A third of self-described Democrats said they view him positively, but that’s a dramatic drop from December, when half of Democrats questioned held a favorable opinion of the 74-year-old senator.
Many Democrats heavily criticized Schumer earlier this year for his support of a GOP-crafted funding bill that kept the federal government from shutting down.
The AP-NORC poll is the latest survey to spell trouble for the Democratic Party.
The Democrats’ ratings stood underwater in the most recent Fox News national poll at 41% favorable and 56% unfavorable in a survey conducted April 18-21.
That’s an all-time low for the Democrats in Fox News polling. And for the first time in a decade, the party’s standing was lower than that of the GOP, which stood at 44% favorable and 54% unfavorable.
The figures were reversed last summer, when Fox News last asked the party favorability question in one of its surveys.
The Democratic Party’s favorable ratings were well in negative territory in a Pew Research national survey – 38% favorable, 60% unfavorable – conducted in early April and at 36% favorable, 60% unfavorable in a Wall Street Journal poll in the field a couple of weeks earlier.
And national polls conducted in February by Quinnipiac University and March by CNN and by NBC News also indicated the favorable ratings for the Democratic Party sinking to all-time lows.
But there’s more.
Confidence in the Democratic Party’s congressional leadership sunk to an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll conducted early last month.
The confidence rating for Democrats’ leadership in Congress stood at 25% in the survey, which was nine points below the previous low of 34% recorded in 2023.
And the semi-annual Harvard Youth Poll, which was released late last month, indicated that approval ratings for Democrats in Congress among Americans aged 18-29 nosedived.
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-April indicated that more respondents trusted Trump (40%) than Democrats in Congress (32%) to handle the nation’s main problems. The results came even as Trump’s approval ratings have slid into negative territory since returning to the White House.
And a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted late last month suggested Republicans hold a significant advantage over Democrats on two top issues: the economy and immigration.
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