Who Are Democrats Blaming for Their Unpopularity?
Since their decisive losses across the board in the 2024 elections, the Democratic Party has been searching for a way forward and a way to fix its growing unpopularity.
The party has been dogged by continued negative polling figures, with an ABC News-Washington Post-Ipsos poll released last month showing 69% of people believe the Democratic Party is out of touch with most people’s concerns.
An NBC News Stay Tuned Poll released last month showed that when asked which party fights for people like you, 38% said neither party, while 24% said the Republican Party and only 23% said the Democratic Party.
While the party looks for answers and a leader to guide them to victory in the 2026 and 2028 elections, here are some of the reasons Democrats believe their party has lost its popularity.
Not progressive enough
Hard-left members of the Democratic Party have insisted the party’s attempted appeals to centrists during the 2024 campaign were unwise and that they should embrace progressive messages going forward.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have gone on a nationwide “Fight Oligarchy” tour directed against President Donald Trump and Republicans, with stops in Republican areas along with Democratic strongholds. The tour, led by two of the most well-known progressives in Congress, has been criticized by some Democrats like Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Sanders has pushed back on those critiques.
“Geez, we had 36,000 people out in Los Angeles, 34,000 people in Colorado, we had 30,000 people in Folsom, California, which is kind of a rural area. I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are. I think they understand very well that the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%,” Sanders said on NBC News’s Meet the Press last month.
“If we don’t address that issue, the American people will continue to turn their backs on democracy because they’re looking around them saying, ‘Does anybody understand what I am going through?’ And unfortunately, right now to a large degree neither party does,” he said.
Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate and has run for the party’s presidential nomination twice, also took aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for saying the party was unified as the progressive and establishment wings of the party clash over its direction.
“United around what? Are we united around guaranteeing healthcare to all people? … Are we united in tackling a corrupt campaign finance system?” he questioned. “How do you deal with politics in America without understanding that billionaires play an enormously destructive role in both political parties?” Sanders said in an interview on CNN last week.
Bad messaging
Another criticism Sanders had in the CNN interview was the Democrats’ lack of clear messaging.
“You need an agenda,” Sanders said in the interview. “[What] the Democrats need to do right now is to have the courage to take on the very powerful special interests who, to a large degree, control the political process and the legislative process in the United States.”
A lack of clear messaging has been a constant item Democrats have pointed to when asked about the party’s unpopularity. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has been vocal about the party needing a clear message and policies, rather than focusing on candidates and personality.
“I’m not worried about [whether] we will find a great candidate,” he said. “But what do we stand for? What are we about? What are we going to fight for?” Newsom told NBC News.
“Who are we? And if we’re a bunch of dangling verbs and policy statements — I make this mistake often, too. I answer a question with 10 policy responses, as opposed to what do [I] stand for,” he added.
When asked about if she would consider a 2028 presidential run last week, former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also pointed out that the party must figure out its direction and its message to be able to compete in the next presidential election.
“How will we overcome this impression that we’re elitist, we’re out of touch, we don’t have our sense on the culture?” Raimondo said. “There’s so much to do. I don’t know how many cycles it’s gonna take. There’s a reason there were a dozen years between Carter and Clinton. And I don’t know where we are in that cycle.”
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