Many Democrats are still down on the Democrats, a new AP-NORC poll finds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic candidates have notched a series of wins in recent special elections — but a new AP-NORC poll finds views of the Democratic Party among rank-and-file Democrats have not bounced back since President Donald Trump’s victory in 2024.
Only about 7 in 10 Democrats have a positive view of the Democratic Party, according to new polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While the overwhelming majority of Democrats still feel good about their party, they’re much less positive than they’ve been in the past.
The midterm elections are still many months away, and lackluster favorability doesn’t spell electoral doom. Other factors could benefit Democrats this year, including broadly negative views of Trump and other Republicans. Additionally, recent polling has found that independents tend to identify more with the party that’s out of power, which could boost Democrats this year too. Historically, the party not in the White House has picked up seats in Congress in midterm elections.
But the lack of enthusiasm could be a longer-term problem for the party. Democrats’ favorability of their party plummeted after the 2024 election, from 85% in September 2024 to 67% in October 2025. And despite overwhelming victories in November’s off-season elections and a string of wins since then, those views haven’t recovered. Other polling indicates that Democrats are deeply frustrated with their party.
At the same time, there’s some potential good news for Democrats in the new poll. Although Republicans are slightly more enthusiastic about their own party, Americans in general don’t think highly of either party. Health care is on many Americans’ minds this year, and it’s an issue where Democrats have a large advantage, according to the survey. Meanwhile, Republicans have lost some ground on two of Trump’s signature issues, the economy and immigration, although Americans don’t necessarily trust Democrats more on those issues as a result.
Many Democrats are frustrated
Other polling suggests that Democrats’ post-2024 slump is unusually large.
In Gallup’s measure of favorability, Democrats’ positive views of their own party declined about 12 percentage points in the last year. That marked the lowest measure in that question’s history, which dates back to 2001. Notably, Democrats did not see a similar decline after their first loss to Trump in 2016.
That diminished view of the Democratic Party in the AP-NORC polling is consistent regardless of Democrats’ age, race, ideology or educational background — suggesting that appealing to a specific group or two won’t fix the problem.
A separate survey from the Pew Research Center last fall found roughly two-thirds of Democrats in September said their own party made them “frustrated” compared to just 4 in 10 Republicans.
Among those frustrated Democrats, about 4 in 10 felt their party was not fighting hard enough against Trump while about 1 in 10 said there was a lack of good leadership or a cohesive agenda.
Many Americans are negative about both parties
It’s not just Democrats — Americans aren’t thrilled with either party right now.
Roughly one-quarter of Americans have a negative view of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, according to the AP-NORC data. That double-negativity is especially sharp among independents and Americans under 45.
About half of U.S. adults only view one party positively, and only about 1 in 10 feel good about both parties.
But Democrats’ loss of goodwill is more recent. Polling over the last 25 years from Gallup shows that Americans used to feel much more positively toward the Democrats. Around 2010, public sentiment turned against the Democrats. Since then, at least half of Americans have held unfavorable views of the party, according to Gallup.
Negative views of the Democrats now rival the most negative points in time for the Republicans.
Democrats hold health care as a strength
With health care at the top of Americans’ priority lists as costs and premiums rise, Democrats have a possible advantage going into the midterm year.
About one-third of U.S. adults — 35% — trust the Democrats to do a better job handling health care, compared to 23% for the Republicans. That is broadly in line with the last time the question was asked in October 2025.
At the same time, Republicans have lost some ground on the issues that were key to Trump’s reelection — the economy and immigration. But Democrats haven’t managed to capitalize on it. Only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults, 31%, say Republicans are the party they trust to handle the economy, down slightly from 36% last year. But Democrats haven’t made any gains on this issue; rather, slightly more Americans now say they trust “neither” party to handle the economy.
Neither party has an edge on who is better equipped to manage the cost of living, which was first asked in the most recent poll.
Republicans are also down slightly on handling immigration. Only about one-third of U.S. adults trust them to better handle immigration, an apparent decrease from 39% in October. Democrats didn’t appear to benefit from that shift either.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,156 adults was conducted Feb. 5-8 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for Democrats overall is plus or minus 6.0 percentage points.