‘Weak and ineffective’: Just 23% of Dems view their party positively: AP-NORC poll

The recent poll highlights growing dissatisfaction among Democrats with their own party following a major electoral defeat last November, which saw Donald Trump return to the presidency and Republicans take control of the White House, Senate, and the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party has since faced internal division over its direction, ideological divisions, as well as leadership.

The poll, conducted between July 10 and 14 among 1,437 adults, revealed that 35 percent of Democrats used negative terms to describe their party with words like "weak," "tepid," "apathetic," "ineffective," and "broken." In contrast, only 23 percent offered positive descriptors. Among Republicans, 41 percent used positive language to describe their own party, while 19 percent were critical.

The poll was conducted between July 10 and 14 with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points. 35 percent of those in the poll were Democrats, 27 percent were independents, and 37 percent were part of the GOP.

These findings come amid other signs of a declining image of the Democrats. A poll from the Wall Street Journal recently found that the Democratic Party has fallen to a 35-year low in its favorability rating.

Amid the low numbers, Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin said, “We are a party that needs to focus on getting back to an economic message that gives people a sense that we're fighting for them, but we don't need to abandon our values. We've been the party fighting for the working class and the poor, but we are also the party that's always fought against discrimination, bigotry, harassment, and people being bullied out of the conversation. We'll continue to do that,” per Newsweek.

A Democrat pollster, John Anzalone, said of the Wall Street Journal poll, "The Democratic brand is so bad that they don't have the credibility to be a critic of Trump or the Republican Party. Until they reconnect with real voters and working people on who they're for and what their economic message is, they're going to have problems."