The Democratic party’s favorability rating has hit a record low, according to a CNN survey released Sunday.
The survey, conducted March 6-9, shows 54 percent of U.S. adults say they have an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic party, while 29 percent say they have a favorable opinion and 16 percent say they have no opinion.
That represents a shift from early January, before President Trump was sworn into office for the second time, when 48 percent said they have an unfavorable opinion of the Democrats, 33 percent said they have a favorable opinion, and 17 percent said they have no opinion.
In late October, ahead of the 2024 election, a survey of registered voters included 51 percent of respondents with an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic party, 39 percent with a favorable opinion, and 10 percent with no opinion. The year before, in October 2023, a survey showed 50 percent of U.S. adults had an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party, while 37 percent had a favorable opinion, and 11 percent had no opinion.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s favorability rating remains unchanged from January, at 36 percent, while the unfavorability rating has ticked up from 44 percent in January to 48 percent in the March survey.
In October 2024, 49 percent of registered voters had an unfavorable opinion of the GOP, while 40 percent had a favorable opinion. In October 2023, 52 percent of U.S. adults had an unfavorable opinion of the GOP while 35 percent had a favorable opinion.
The GOP’s record low favorability came in September 2017, during the start of Trump’s first term in office, when 29 percent of the public had a favorable opinion of the Republican party and 62 percent had an unfavorable opinion.
The Democrats’ sliding favorability appears to be fueled by party members’ souring on the party and its leadership.
In the recent survey, 52 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the party’s leadership is taking the party in the wrong direction, while 48 percent say they are taking the party in the right direction.
The last time the Republican party held the White House and both chambers of Congress, in 2017, 52 percent said they were leading the party in the right direction and 36 percent said they were leading the party in the wrong direction.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents also say they want their leaders to have different goals from what they said in the 2017 survey. Today, 57 percent say they want their Democratic party to work to stop the GOP agenda, while 42 percent say they want the party to work with the Republicans. In September 2017, 74 percent wanted the party to work with Republicans, while 23 percent wanted their party to work to stop the GOP agenda.
The survey included 1,206 respondents and has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
