The Democratic Party has reached an all-time low in popularity in the latest national NBC News poll, as it searches for a path forward after a painful loss to President Donald Trump — and as the party’s voters spoil for a fight between their leaders in Washington and Trump.
Just over a quarter of registered voters (27%) say they have positive views of the party, which is the party’s lowest positive rating in NBC News polling dating back to 1990. Just 7% say those views are “very” positive.
“With these numbers, the Democratic Party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the survey along with GOP pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
The slump is partially driven by fed-up Democrats, according to the polling data, after they watched their party lose to Trump in 2024. And now, in a reversal from Trump’s first term, self-identified Democratic voters say they want their party to hold the line on their positions even if it leads to gridlock, rather than focus on finding areas of compromise with the president.
The poll illustrates the angst within the party driving backlash against the Senate Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who sided with Republicans on a Friday procedural vote to advance a GOP-designed spending bill and avert a government shutdown.
“When Donald Trump wakes up in the morning and says, ‘You’re doing the right things, Senate Democrats’ — we don’t feel that is the right place to be,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the House Democratic Caucus chair, said Friday.
Back in April 2017, 59% of Democrats said they wanted congressional Democrats to make compromises with Trump to gain consensus on legislation, with 33% saying they should stick to their positions even if that means not being able to get things done in Washington.
Now, that sentiment has completely flipped. Almost two-thirds of Democrats, 65%, say they want congressional Democrats to stick to their positions even if that risks sacrificing bipartisan progress, and just 32% want them to make legislative compromises with Trump.
Elizabeth Joyce, a 35-year-old technology project manager from Texas, said she may have supported Democrats compromising with Trump during his first term, but not anymore.
“I’m scared that compromising will lead to the downfall of our democracy, to only be slightly hyperbolic,” said Joyce, who participated in the survey and said she thought Democrats should hold the line even if it leads to gridlock. “It’s really scary seeing the things being done, the things being slashed left and right without any regard for the outcome.”
“I think it’s more important for Democrats to stick to their guns and kind of put up a fight,” said Samantha Kosloske, a 29-year-old from New York. “I mean, [Trump is] probably not gonna listen either way, but I think that’s gonna be at least more effective.”
Read more from the NBC News poll
Even some of those who want their party to fight say they aren’t necessarily looking for sweeping victories so much as for their party to play some defense against Republican efforts they oppose. Democrats are in the minority in both the House and the Senate.
“I don’t expect anything to get done, any productive things to get done during this time, but I would hope they could prevent destructive things from happening, or do what they can to prevent those destructive things from happening,” said Mary Font, a 46-year-old combat veteran from California.
While more Democrats are itching for a fight, some are still looking for the party to make compromises to advance legislation.
“In order to get some wins we will have to give the conservative party some wins as well,” said Jason Howard, a 40-year-old data analyst from Florida. He added: “We’re definitely not going to get anything done in the next two years, or at least until this Congress is over, if we don’t at least approach them with some give and take.”
When Howard spoke with NBC News on Friday afternoon, he was hoping that Senate Democrats would ultimately vote to keep the government open, arguing that a shutdown could hurt the economy.
Other Democrats said they wanted Democrats to hold the line, even if that meant shutting down the government.
The survey was conducted from March 7-11, largely before this week’s standoff over government funding. But it underscores a dynamic that loomed over that debate, where Democrats in Congress were divided over whether to provide votes to allow passage of a GOP-authored funding bill they hate or block it, which would cause a government shutdown.
Dozens of furious Democratic senators tried to draw a line in the sand and argue that the party shouldn’t acquiesce to a government funding process after they were cut out of negotiations around it. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly said the continuing resolution would “give unchecked power to Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” with others panning it as “dangerous” and “a terrible deal.”
Ultimately, 10 Senate Democrats including Schumer agreed to end debate on the funding measure, allowing it to pass with Republican votes. Schumer argued that a shutdown would give Trump and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency even more power to dismantle the federal government, but the move angered House Democrats and many Democratic voters who want to see their party hold the line against Trump.
Kosloske, the Democrat from New York, name-checked Schumer’s decision to advance the funding measure as evidence that Democrats are “not responding” to Trump.
“I’m like, ‘OK, so we’re just bending over and letting him have everything that he wants,’” she said.
There are no clear dividing lines among Democratic voters on this question across gender, socioeconomic status and ethnicity, according to the NBC News poll. Suburban Democratic voters are slightly more likely to want congressional Democrats to dig in when compared to rural Democrats, while white male Democrats and those without college educations are slightly more likely to want compromise.
Still, even those who are open to compromise are looking for more action from congressional Democrats.
Howard, the data analyst from Florida, said he wants Democrats to be “more vocal” and more actively pushing out ideas and legislation.
“They’re just willing to protest silently with a little sign or wearing pink to the State of the Union address,” he said. “It’s not enough.”
A new low
As Democratic voters are itching for their leaders to fight Trump, the party has reached a new low among the electorate.
A majority of voters (55%) say they have negative views of the party, including 38% who say those views are “very” negative.
The Republican Party also has a net-negative image, with 49% of voters saying they view the party negatively and 39% saying they view it positively. But the GOP can at least console itself with control of the White House and Congress. For Democrats, the numbers are another a warning sign for the party as it tries to regroup and navigate the new Trump administration.
The drop in the party’s image is driven in part by independent voters, with just 11% saying they have positive views while 56% say they have negative views.
The poll also finds that some components of the Democratic base have soured on the party as well.
Nearly 20% of Democratic voters say they have negative views of the party, while 10% of Republicans say the same about the GOP.
And a quarter of liberals view the party negatively, double the share of conservatives who view the GOP negatively.
The new low of positive feelings about the Democratic Party is still a few points higher than the Republican Party’s lowest-ever rating, from October 2013, when just 22% said they viewed the party positively amid a government shutdown.
Still, the next year, the GOP scored its biggest House majority in nearly a century after trouncing Democrats in the midterm elections.
Now, the NBC News poll shows a closely divided battle for control of Congress ahead of the 2026 midterms, with 48% of voters saying they preferred a Democratic-controlled Congress and 47% backing Republicans, with 5% saying they are not sure.
“While this survey shows a mixed result for Donald Trump, Democrats are the ones in the wilderness right now,” said Horwitt, the Democratic pollster. “If there is good news, it is on preference for control of Congress, where Democrats have a 1-point advantage.”
Democrats also have history on their side next year, with the party in power traditionally losing congressional seats.
Voters did have different views of how congressional Democrats and Republicans have been navigating Trump, with 53% saying Republicans have been too supportive, while 50% say Democrats have been too critical.
A higher share of voters (39%) say Republicans are dealing with Trump in the right way, while 30% say the same of Democrats, but those views are largely driven by voters in those parties.
The NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters from March 7-11 via a mix of telephone interviews and an online survey sent via text message. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
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