Democratic base's anger puts some party leaders on shaky ground
[April 01, 2025]
By JONATHAN J. COOPER
PHOENIX (AP) — The Democratic base is angry.
Not just at President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the “Make America
Great Again” movement. Rank-and-file Democrats are mad at their own
leaders and increasingly agitating to replace them.
Democrats in Arizona and Georgia pushed out their party chairs. And
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York postponed a book tour
in the face of protests amid calls from progressives that he face a
primary challenge.
The losing party after a presidential election often spends time in the
wilderness, but the visceral anger among Democrats toward their party
leaders is reaching a level reminiscent of the tea party movement that
swept out Republican incumbents 15 years ago.
“They should absolutely be worried about holding onto power, because
there's a real energy right now against them,” Paco Fabián, deputy
director of Our Revolution, a grassroots group allied with independent
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, said of Democratic incumbents. “And as soon
as somebody figures out how to harness it, they're going to be in deep
trouble.”
A deeper hole than previous losses
Elections on Tuesday could give national Democrats a boost. In
Wisconsin, the officially nonpartisan race for a state Supreme Court
seat has become a test of Musk's influence as his political organization
boosts conservative Brad Schimel and progressives back liberal Susan
Crawford, who has made anti-Musk messaging a centerpiece of her
campaign. And two U.S. House special elections in Florida feature
Democrats who are outraising their Republican counterparts in sharply
pro-Trump districts.
But the current depth of frustration among Democrats is clear and shows
no signs of going away.
According to a February Quinnipiac poll, about half disapprove of how
Democrats in Congress are handling their job, compared with about 4 in
10 who approve. That’s a stark contrast from the beginning of Joe
Biden’s presidency in 2021, when more than 8 in 10 Democrats approved of
how their party was doing its job in Congress, and the start of Trump’s
first term in 2017, when about 6 in 10 Democrats approved. In 2017, as
they do now, Democrats lacked control of either congressional chamber.
A February CNN/SSRS poll found about three-quarters of Democrats and
Democratic-leaning independents thought Democrats in Congress weren’t
doing enough to oppose Trump.
Facing a coordinated and long-planned Republican effort to remake
government and fire tens of thousands of federal workers, Democrats have
struggled with a unified response.
Frustration on the left with elected Democrats began early, when some
Democratic senators backed Trump Cabinet nominees and supported
legislation targeting illegal immigration. It escalated following
Trump’s joint address to Congress, when Democratic lawmakers protested
by wearing coordinated clothes and holding up signs expressing their
discontent. A handful of Democrats then voted with Republicans to
censure U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who interrupted Trump's speech to
Congress and was escorted out of the chamber.
Schumer faced the most serious backlash after he refused to block a
Republican-led government spending bill and shut down the government.
Schumer said blocking the bill would have backfired and played into
Trump’s hands, but many on the left saw it as capitulation.
“I want the opposition to be a lot more animated,” said Stefan Therrien,
a 22-year-old engineering student in Tempe, Arizona, who called
Democratic leaders in Congress “very passive” in a misguided effort to
appeal to centrists. “Democrats should attack harder.”
Ken Human, a retired attorney who went to a town hall organized by
Democrats in Lexington, Kentucky, said: “You have to stand up to bullies
because otherwise they’ll walk all over you.”
Anger from a party's base is not unusual after a party loses the
presidency.
Establishment Republicans faced fierce backlash after Democrat Barack
Obama was elected president in 2008, which fueled the rise of the tea
party movement that overthrew some of the party’s most powerful
incumbents and brought in a new cadre of lawmakers laser-focused on
obstructing Obama’s agenda.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, greets Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
D-N.Y., as they speak during a stop of their "Fighting Oligarchy"
tour that filled Civic Center Park, Friday, March 21, 2025, in
Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Democrats, likewise, were dejected after Republican President George W.
Bush was reelected in 2004, but his popularity soon tanked and Democrats
could foresee the massive wins they would notch in the 2006 midterms,
said Robert Shapiro, a Columbia University professor focused on American
politics.
Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980 was a bigger shock to Democrats because
it brought with it a period of Republican ascendance. The GOP won a
Senate majority for the first time in nearly 30 years, though Democrats
retained control of the House.
“The setback was significant and startling, but not as much as what’s
happened today, where you have Trump winning the election at the same
time the Republicans have control of both houses of Congress,” Shapiro
said.
Grassroots Democrats were incensed by Trump’s first victory — with some
talk then of primary challengers to leaders — but they mostly channeled
their anger toward the president and the GOP, planning marches and
organizing community groups to prepare for the midterms.
Those midterms led to at least one primary upset with future
implications: New York Rep. Joe Crowley, the No. 4 House Democrat, fell
to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then a virtual unknown.
Angry town halls and new challengers
Thousands have packed rallies to hear Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez,
outsiders who rose to prominence for their sharp criticism of the
Democratic establishment.
Democrats are getting an earful from constituents at some of the town
halls, including events they’re organizing in GOP-controlled districts
to draw attention to Republicans avoiding unscripted interactions with
voters.
In Arizona, which went for Biden in 2020 before flipping to Trump last
year, furious party leaders ousted their chair, Yolanda Bejarano. The
result was a shock; Bejarano had support from every prominent Democrat
in the state and was widely expected to get a second term.
U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the chair of the Georgia Democratic Party,
met a similar fate after Trump flipped Georgia in 2024. Williams
resigned as party chair on Monday, days after the Democratic state
committee approved a rules change making its chairmanship a full-time
role, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The rule made it
untenable for Williams to continue as chair through the end of her term
in 2027 while keeping her congressional seat.
Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old liberal journalist with a big social
media following, decided to run for Congress, saying most Democrats
“work from an outdated playbook” in an announcement video that’s
fiercely critical of party leaders.
“They aren’t meeting the moment, and their constituents are absolutely
livid,” Abughazaleh said in an interview. She said Rep. Jan Schakowsky,
the 80-year-old Democrat who has represented a suburban Chicago district
since 1999, has an “admirable” progressive record, but “something needs
to change culturally ... about how we do politics and how we campaign.”
“I’m done sitting around waiting for someone else to maybe do it,”
Abughazaleh said.
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Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner in Lexington, Ky., contributed
to this report.
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