Democrats’ Popularity Drops to New Low

A fractured and defeated Democratic Party has reached an all-time low in popularity in the latest national NBC News poll, as it searches for a path forward after a painful loss to President Donald Trump — and as the party’s voters spoil for a fight between their leaders in Washington and Trump.

Just over a quarter of registered voters (27%) say they have positive views of the party, which is the party’s lowest positive rating in NBC News polling dating 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 slump is partially driven by fed-up Democrats, according to the polling data, after they watched their party lose to Trump in 2024. And now, in a reversal from Trump’s first term, self-identified Democratic voters say they want their party to hold the line on their positions even if it leads to gridlock, rather than focus on finding areas of compromise with the president.

The poll illustrates the angst within the party driving backlash against the Senate Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who sided with Republicans on a Friday procedural vote to advance a GOP-designed spending bill and avert a government shutdown.

“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, D-Calif., the House Democratic Caucus chair, said Friday.

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 sentiment has completely 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 just 32% want them to make legislative compromises with Trump. Despite these abysmal poll numbers, an apparently delusional Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said she believes her party will take back the House majority in 2026.