Georgia swing voters say gov shutdown made Dems look bad: Axios focus group

Focus groups conducted with Georgia swing voters have found that the majority of those voters said Democrats came out of the government shutdown looking worse than Republicans.

The focus groups, conducted by Engagious and Sago for Axios, found that seven of the 13 voters who cast their ballot for Biden in 2020 but switched to Trump in 2024 said that Democrats came out of the shutdown looking worse. Two of the voters said that Republicans came out looking worse, and four said both parties came out looking bad.

One of the voters, 53-year-old Trilya M, said of the Democrats, "They gave in to the Republicans. They did not stand their ground with them, and now it's going to affect the people that [have] the Affordable Care Act."

Christine L, 54, said, "It was for what? It really does make them look bad." 33-year-old Elijah T said, "They always project to be a party of the people who they care about, the disenfranchised, the people who are in poverty ... but their actions contradict it, they don't really care."

61-year-old Brian B said, "Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries beat the heck out of this and wasted 41 days dragging their feet before eight Democrats finally decided enough is enough."

Engagious president Rich Tau, who moderated the focus groups, said in a statement, "Democrats gave swing voters — who already hold the party in profoundly low esteem — yet another reason to mistrust them."

Per Axios, the outlet observed "two online focus groups Tuesday night with 13 Georgia voters who backed Joe Biden in 2020, then Donald Trump in 2024. Nine are independents, three are Republicans, and one is a Democrat." The outlet noted that while a focus group is not a "statistically significant sample like a poll," the responses give a window into how some voters are feeling.