According to recent polling, the Democratic Party’s approval ratings amongst Americans have hit an all-time low. conducted By SSRS, partly driven by declining opinions from its increasingly discontented base.
As numerous members of the party assert publicly that their leadership needs to be tougher on President Donald Trump, Democrats along with Democratic-leaning independents indicate they prefer, at a ratio of 57% to 42%, that Democrats focus primarily on halting the Republican agenda instead of collaborating with the GOP majority to incorporate some Democratic proposals into bills.
The survey took place from March 6-9, just prior to when 10 Democratic senators—including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer—voted alongside Republicans to move forward with a Republican-drafted spending measure aimed at preventing a government shutdown. This decision did not sit well with numerous other Democrats and progressive commentators.
The shift towards opposing the GOP represents a major transformation in the party's stance since the beginning of Trump's initial term. According to a survey conducted in September 2017, a substantial 74% of Democrats along with those leaning toward the Democratic Party believed at that time that their party should collaborate with Republicans to promote shared goals, whereas only 23% favored adopting a more confrontational strategy.
Democrats who align with the party indicate that 52% to 48% believe the current leadership of the Democratic Party is steering it in the wrong direction. This represents a change from eight years back when opinions about this measure were mostly favorable.
Across the general American population, the Democratic Party’s approval rating is only at 29%, which is the lowest recorded since 's polls started tracking data in 1992. This represents a decline of 20 percentage points from January 2021 when Trump concluded his initial presidential term amid the backdrop of the assault on the Capitol on January 6th. In contrast, the Republican Party has an approval rating of 36%.
This trend can be attributed partly to significant discontent within the Democratic Party. Currently, only 63% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents hold a positive opinion about their party, down from 72% in January and 81% when President Joe Biden took office. This decrease spans different ideological factions, as demonstrated by an 18-point drop in favorability towards the Democratic Party among both liberals and moderates since early 2021.
In comparison, 79% of Republicans and those leaning towards the Republican party have a favorable opinion of the GOP. Independents, overall, hold unfavorable views of both political parties, with only 19% viewing the Democrats positively and 20% having a similar view of the Republicans.
Approximately half of the public sees both the Democratic and Republican parties as holding viewpoints and policies that are overly extreme instead of being broadly mainstream. This represents a shift since 2022, when a majority of Americans—56%—considered the Democratic Party's stances to be mainstream. Opinions regarding the GOP have stayed relatively stable during this period.
Political independents continue to view the Republican Party as more likely to be outside the mainstream — 57% consider the GOP too extreme, compared with 48% who feel the same about the Democratic Party. However, only 16% of Democrats think their party is too extreme, whereas merely 9% of Republicans believe the same about the Republican Party.
People still make a clear separation between Trump and his political party. Currently, Americans are 9 percentage points more likely to describe the president as overly extreme rather than saying the same about the entire Republican Party, though this difference has narrowed from 18 percentage points since last year.
Democrats, who largely view Trump as excessively extreme, haven’t yet united behind a single leading figure within their own ranks to provide opposition. When asked in an unrestricted survey to identify which Democratic leader best embodies the party’s fundamental principles, 10% of Democrats pointed to New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 9% chose former Vice President Kamala Harris, 8% selected Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and 6% opted for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. An additional 4% named both ex-President Barack Obama and Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was among those chosen by only 2%, along with several others.
Over 30% did not provide a name when asked. "Nobody," one participant responded. "That's precisely the issue."
Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, who gave the Democrats' reply to President Trump's recent speech, still remains relatively obscure. According to a different poll, almost seventy-five percent of Americans either haven’t heard about her or hold no particular stance towards her, with the rest being equally divided in their views. Her recognition among fellow Democrats isn't much higher; however, those within the Democratic-leaning group who do comment on her generally speak favorably, showing a ratio of 24% positive to just 6% negative.
Ocasio-Cortez holds significant sway within the party, particularly among self-described liberals and individuals under 45 years old. Approximately one out of every six people in these demographics views her as representative of the party’s principles. Among older Democrats and moderate members, no Democratic leader achieved a two-digit score for embodying the party’s values.
The survey reveals that Democratic-leaning adults have significantly different opinions about their party and its leadership based on demographics. Self-identified Democrats are much more likely than independent voters leaning towards the party to hold positive views of the Democrats (72% compared to 37%) and believe that the party’s leaders are steering it in the correct direction (53% versus 34%).
Even though the party leadership receives favorable feedback from a majority of Democratic-leaning women (with 57% believing they're steering things in the right direction), as well as individuals of color (also at 57%) and those without college degrees (at 60%), only 38% of men and 32% of white college-educated individuals share this sentiment.
In contrast, majorities across various demographics believe that Democrats should focus on halting the Republican agenda, showing minimal difference in opinion among self-described Democrats and independent voters leaning towards the party. Only moderate Democratic-leaning individuals slightly tilt towards collaboration; they indicate, at 51% to 48%, that Democrats ought to primarily seek bipartisanship with Republicans.
The survey was carried out by SSRS between March 6 and 9 using a randomly selected nationwide group of 1,206 American adults who were part of a probability-based panel. Participants could complete the surveys through an online platform or via phone calls involving direct interaction with an interviewer. The data for all adults comes with a potential sampling error rate of ±3.3 percentage points. For the subgroup consisting of 504 Democrats or Democrat-leaning independents, the possible sampling error is ±5.0 percentage points.
Jennifer Agiesta and Edward Wu contributed to this report.
To stay updated with the latest news and newsletters, sign up for an account here.