The Democratic Party’s popularity has reached an all-time low in a new poll as its leaders attempt to figure out a cohesive message and a leader to unite behind in the wake of losing an election to President Trump.
According to NBC News, only a quarter of registered voters (27%) say they have positive views of the party, which is the party’s lowest positive rating in the outlet’s polling going back to 1990. Just 7% say those views are “very” positive.
“With these numbers, the Democratic Party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the survey along with GOP pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
The Democrats’ collapse in popularity is generally propelled by members of the party frustrated by former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Mr. Trump in November.
Self-identified Democratic voters say they want their party to hold to their positions, even if it leads to political gridlock, instead of finding areas of compromise with the president.
The poll shows how fed-up Democrats are with their own party and with Senate Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, who backed a Republican funding bill on a Friday procedural vote to avoid a government shutdown.
Republicans control the Senate 53-47 and needed Democratic help to clear the 60-vote threshold to bypass a filibuster
Ten Senate Democrats ultimately joined most Republicans to advance the GOP funding bill, 62-38. More than an hour later, the final bill passed 54-46 largely along party lines. Mr. Trump signed the legislation Saturday.
Asked about the defections, Sen. Chris Murphy, Connecticut Democrat said, “Well, it’s what I just talked about. I mean, I think Americans want the Democratic Party to stand up and fight and to take risks.
“I understand that had we gone into a shutdown, even for a handful of days, it would have been difficult. But it would have sent a message that the Democratic Party is not going to be bullied by Donald Trump. We are not going to let them write spending bills unilaterally that cut programs for people we care about.”
House Democrats expressed anger and frustration over Mr. Schumer’s decision not to block the spending bill.
“When Donald Trump wakes up in the morning and says, ’You’re doing the right things, Senate Democrats’ — we don’t feel that is the right place to be,” Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said Friday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York only responded “next question” when a reporter asked at a press conference if he had confidence in Mr. Schumer’s leadership.
Back in April 2017, 59% of Democrats said they wanted congressional Democrats to make compromises with Trump to gain consensus on legislation, with 33% saying they should stick to their positions even if that means not being able to get things done in Washington.
Now, that attitude has flipped. Almost two-thirds of Democrats, 65%, say they want congressional Democrats to stick to their positions even if that risks sacrificing bipartisan progress, and only 32% of them want them to make legislative compromises with Mr. Trump.
NBC News interviewed 1,000 registered voters between March 7 and 11.
This included 631 respondents interviewed via cellphone and 300 respondents interviewed via an online survey sent via text message.
The margin of error for the 1,000 interviews among Registered Voters was ±3.10%.
