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...
By Fox News · Fox News
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. WHAT OUR LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL SAYS 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…