A Quinnipiac University national poll released last week found that Democrats in Congress have hit an all-time low in rankings since the pollster began measuring congressional performance in 2009. The big factor that explains it: A ton of Democratic voters are unhappy with the party’s response — or lack thereof — to the start of President Trump’s second term. That dissatisfaction underscores how Democrats have yet to find a clear and compelling voice in pushing back against Trump’s astonishing takeover of Washington in his first month back in office.
According to Quinnipiac’s poll of more than 1,000 registered voters, conducted between Feb. 13 and Feb. 17, just 21% of voters approve of the job congressional Democrats are doing, while 68% disapprove. It’s not surprising that only 8% of Republican voters approve of congressional Democrats. But it is striking that only 40% of Democrats do. According to Quinnipiac, 49% of Democrats disapprove of what Democrats in Congress are doing.
The often acrimonious debate over what Democrats must do to evolve after losing two of three contests to Trump has dominated liberal and left-wing political circles since November — and shows no signs of letting up.
According to Quinnipiac’s comparable poll from February 2017, 59% of Democrats surveyed approved of Democrats in Congress, and 31% disapproved. As those 2017 numbers show, Democratic voters were by no means entirely unified behind the party, but a sizable majority approved of how Democratic lawmakers were comporting themselves at the beginning of the first Trump term.
Quinnipiac isn’t the only bearer of bad news. As The Washington Post recently pointed out, YouGov tracking of Democrats’ favorability as far back as January 2017 finds Democrats at their lowest level of popularity since Trump first entered government, and CNN polling data shows Democrats with their lowest favorability among Americans since 2006.
Democrats’ abysmal ratings are likely tied to a mix of the party’s poor performance in the 2024 elections and its struggles to find its footing in response to Trump’s aggressive opening to his second term. A January CNN poll found that “a 58% majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that the Democratic Party needs major changes, or to be completely reformed, up from just 34% who said the same after the 2022 midterm election.” The often acrimonious debate over what Democrats must do to evolve after losing two of three contests to Trump has dominated liberal and left-wing political circles since November, and shows no signs of letting up.
Democratic Party leaders are not helping renew the faith of the disillusioned. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are holding news conferences objecting to Trump’s barrage of executive orders and his purger-in-chief Elon Musk’s DOGE operation. But they have not settled on a unified and compelling narrative to counter Trump’s offensive on issues such as immigration and “inefficiency” in the federal government. The Democratic caucus has split on immigration, and many Democratic lawmakers crossed the aisle to help Republicans pass the reactionary Laken Riley Act. And as my colleague Hayes Brown has argued, Schumer has “barely used any” of the tactics at his disposal in the Senate for slowing down Trump’s agenda. A February CNN poll found that 74% of Democrats surveyed believe Democrats in Congress are doing too little to oppose Trump.
As a result, progressive protesters objecting to Trump’s actions so far have not only expressed ire at Trump but also at Democrats. Thousands can be heard in Washington chanting, “Where is Congress” and “Do your job!” And both Schumer and Jeffries have become targets of demonstrators desperate to compel Democratic leadership to do more to slow down Trump’s hostile takeover of the federal workforce.
The reality is that, with Republicans controlling every branch of government, there are major limitations to what Democrats can do through the formal channels of government to stop Trump other than delay and, when possible, block his agenda using procedural tools and legal challenges. But this is still a crucial period for the party to revisit and renew its policy priorities, rhetorical style, its approach to party discipline, its general culture and its engagement with the movement left. There must be a serious answer to right-wing nationalism on the march in America. So far the protesters are right to point out that Democrats are treating the current moment as too close to business as usual, as Musk helps create an authoritarian power center in the government that is unprecedented.
