Politico: Internal Democrat Polling Shows "Massive Branding Problem"

Ah, of course. Politico reports this in terms of the Democrats' preferred framing, that their problems only have to do with "messaging" and "branding," and not at all with their core pseudo-religious cult doctrines.

You just have to stop saying "LatinX" and then bob's your uncle!

The Democratic Party's brand is in rough shape in the congressional battlegrounds.

Nearly two months into the second Donald Trump administration, a majority of voters in battleground House districts still believe Democrats in Congress are "more focused on helping other people than people like me," according to an internal poll conducted by the Democratic group Navigator Research. Among independents, just 27 percent believe Democrats are focused on helping them, compared with 55 percent who said they're focused on others.

The polling, shared first with POLITICO, is one of the first comprehensive surveys of voters in swing congressional districts since November 2024. House Democratic members and staff are scheduled to hear from one of the researchers, who will present their findings, at their caucus' Issues Conference on Wednesday in Leesburg, Virginia. The meeting is aimed at guiding members' messaging as they prepare for the 2026 midterms, and the survey suggests the party has an enormous amount of work to do to repair its image.

"The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people's challenges," said Molly Murphy, one of the pollsters who worked on the research by Navigator, a project within the Hub Project, a Democratic nonprofit group. "Even though voters are critical about 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."

Especially alarming for Democrats were findings around voters' views of Democrats and work. Just 44 percent of those polled said they think Democrats respect work, while even fewer -- 39 percent -- said the party values work. Only 42 percent said Democrats share their values. A majority, meanwhile -- 56 percent -- said Democrats are not looking out for working people.

Only 39 percent believe Democrats have the right priorities.

"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, and we've had a very long hangover from that, which feels really, really consequential," Murphy said. "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."

Republicans, too, face their own branding problems, according to the survey, with 54 percent of voters saying they view Republicans in Congress unfavorably. Only about a third of voters said they approve of the GOP's handling of the economy.

David Strom points out that this means 46% of the public approves of congressional Republicans -- which Strom remarks is nearly miraculous. When are congressional approval rates ever above 50%? Or even close to 50%?

But Democrats' difficulties appear to go deeper. For example, the poll found a whopping 69 percent of voters said Democrats were "too focused on being politically correct." Another 51 percent said "elitist" described the Democratic Party well.

Sounds like they don't have a problem with their brand so much as a problem with their core ideology of elevating niche preoccupations over more important concerns that affect everybody.

When a party is disfavored by the public, you always see retirements. It's not just that the losing party fears they may be turned out of office unless they resign. It's also that it's no fun to work in the minority, with little chance of actually doing anything.

Plus the opportunities for grift are so much poorer when you don't have power. No one's giving insider information to a corrupt Democrat who can't even pass a bill to boost their stock price.

Two Democrat Senators have already announced they won't seek reelection. Now a third joins them.

Conventional wisdom around midterms usually has the party in the White House losing steam as voters correct for overreach. So why have three Senate Democrats already announced their intent to retire ahead of the 2026 elections? Advertisement

Jeanne Shaheen made the surprising announcement this morning that she would forego a fourth term, following Tina Smith in Minnesota and Gary Peters in Michigan. Shaheen probably would have had a decent incumbent advantage in New Hampshire -- and Chris Sununu had already passed on challenging her.

Obviously it's way too early for tea leaves. BUT, now that you've mentioned it, if we are looking at tea leaves, it sure seems that Democrats don't believe they'll be taking the majority in the Senate any time soon.

posted by Ace at 01:15 PM

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