Midterm alarm bells: Democrats face steep favorability deficit despite election gains
A new national poll is the latest to indicate that Democrats are facing major problems with their party’s image as they try to win back congressional majorities from the Republicans in this year’s midterm elections.
Just 28% of Americans questioned in a CNN poll view the Democratic Party positively, with 56% seeing Democrats in an unfavorable light.
The poll, the most recent over the past year to indicate the Democratic Party brand hitting historic lows, comes with just over six months to go until the midterms, when they hope to escape the political wilderness.
The GOP, which is working to defend its fragile House and slim Senate majorities in the 2026 ballot box showdowns amid President Donald Trump‘s underwater approval ratings and a rough political climate that doesn’t favor the party in power, doesn’t fare much better in the poll, which was conducted March 26-30.
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Thirty-two percent of Americans said they viewed the Republican Party positively, with 55% seeing the GOP in a negative light.
An average of the most recent national polls that asked how respondents viewed the two major political parties show the Republicans’ favorability 15 points in negative territory but the Democrats 20 points underwater.
Helping to sink the Democratic Party’s underwater ratings are Democrats themselves.
A healthy percentage of Democrats feel that their leaders in Congress aren’t fighting back more vocally against Trump and his unprecedented second-term agenda. That’s fueling a less favorable view of the Democratic Party among Democrats compared to a noticeably more favorable view of the GOP among Republicans.
That’s a departure from 2006 and 2018, the most recent midterms, when the Democrats rode blue waves to win back the House when Republicans controlled the White House. In those years, Democrats led by double digits in net favorability.
Democrats were ecstatic two weeks ago after flipping a Republican-controlled legislative seat in a right-leaning, Palm Beach, Florida-anchored district that includes Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home turf. The same day, Democrats also flipped a state Senate seat in Florida in a separate special election. The Democrats’ Sunshine State victories were their latest wins or overperformances in a slew of special elections from coast to coast since Trump returned to power in the White House 14 months ago.
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Democrats also scored larger than expected victories in last November’s gubernatorial elections in blue-leaning Virginia and New Jersey.
Partially fueling the Democrats’ ballot box performances is their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation. And the victories are further energizing Democrats as they work to win back control of Congress in the midterms.
“From now until November, Democrats are all gas and no brakes as we compete across every corner of Florida and the nation,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said after the Florida special elections.
But along with their brand issues, also troubling for Democrats ahead of the midterms is their standing in the generic ballot, the closely watched polling indicator that asks respondents whether they’d back the Democrat or Republican in their congressional district without offering specific candidate names.
Democrats are up over the Republicans by five points in the CNN poll, and an average of all the most recent national surveys to ask the generic ballot question gives the Democrats an edge over the GOP of just under six points. That margin for the Democrats is smaller than at the same point in the 2018 and 2006 cycles, when they won back the House.
National polls also indicate that when it comes to how both parties are handling the key issues that matter to voters, Democrats don’t enjoy any overwhelming advantage.
The most recent Fox News national poll, which was conducted March 20–23, indicated Democrats with a slight three-point margin over Republicans on which party has a clear plan to bring down prices and make things more affordable. The vast majority of voters questioned in the Fox News poll gave a big thumbs down to both parties.
Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, the president of New England College, told Fox News Digital that Democrats “have no room to coast.”
“Voters remain unimpressed with their brand and for far too many voters the party continues to be defined by Biden and Harris. Democrats are expected to win big in November. But, there is a great deal of work to rehabilitate their brand with voters for 2026 and 2028,” Lesperance said.
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