Democrats are becoming more pessimistic about their party's future after President-elect Donald Trump's victory over Vice President Harris earlier this month, a new poll finds.
data, Friday release A Pew Research Center survey found that nearly half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 49%, are pessimistic about the future. On the other hand, about 51% said they were “very or somewhat optimistic.”
According to Pew, the negative rate is more than 20 points higher than it was after the 2022 midterm elections. Polls show that the party is 10 points darker than it was when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in the 2016 election.
Democrats under 50 were more likely to share a pessimistic outlook than older adults, 50% to 39%. The survey also found that progressive Democrats were more likely than moderates to have negative feelings after Trump's victory, 52% versus 46%.
Republicans, who have secured majorities in both houses of Congress, are increasingly optimistic. Positive ratings in the latest survey are much higher than they were after their first win in 2016, at 86 percent and 79 percent, respectively.
Opinion polls show optimism among Republicans hovering around 65 percent after the 2022 midterm elections. This is probably because the expected red wave did not materialize.
The survey found that conservative Republicans were more optimistic about their party's future than moderate or liberal-leaning members, 92% to 78%.
Pew also found that more Americans say the Republican Party represents their interests than say the same about Democrats.
About half of Americans (50%) say the Republican Party represents “people like us” somewhat or well, while 43% say the same about the opposition party.
The Pew Research data are part of a survey of 9,609 U.S. adults conducted from Nov. 12 to 17. The margin of error was 1.5 percentage points.
