Many Democrats are still down on the Democratic Party, a new AP-NORC
poll finds
[February 19, 2026]
By LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic candidates have notched a series of wins in
recent special elections — but a new AP-NORC poll finds views of the
Democratic Party among rank-and-file Democrats have not bounced back
since President Donald Trump’s victory in 2024.
Only about 7 in 10 Democrats have a positive view of the Democratic
Party, according to new polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center
for Public Affairs Research. While the overwhelming majority of
Democrats still feel good about their party, they're much less positive
than they've been in the past.
The midterm elections are still many months away, and lackluster
favorability doesn't spell electoral doom. Other factors could benefit
Democrats this year, including broadly negative views of Trump and other
Republicans. Additionally, recent polling has found that independents
tend to identify more with the party that’s out of power, which could
boost Democrats this year too. Historically, the party not in the White
House has picked up seats in Congress in midterm elections.
But the lack of enthusiasm could be a longer-term problem for the party.
Democrats' favorability of their party plummeted after the 2024
election, from 85% in September 2024 to 67% in October 2025. And despite
overwhelming victories in November’s off-season elections and a string
of wins since then, those views haven’t recovered. Other polling
indicates that Democrats are deeply frustrated with their party.
At the same time, there's some potential good news for Democrats in the
new poll. Although Republicans are slightly more enthusiastic about
their own party, Americans in general don't think highly of either
party. Health care is on many Americans' minds this year, and it's an
issue where Democrats have a large advantage, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, Republicans have lost some ground on two of Trump's signature
issues, the economy and immigration, although Americans don't
necessarily trust Democrats more on those issues as a result.
Many Democrats are frustrated
Other polling suggests that Democrats' post-2024 slump is unusually
large.
In Gallup’s measure of favorability, Democrats’ positive views of their
own party declined about 12 percentage points in the last year. That
marked the lowest measure in that question’s history, which dates back
to 2001. Notably, Democrats did not see a similar decline after their
first loss to Trump in 2016.
That diminished view of the Democratic Party in the AP-NORC polling is
consistent regardless of Democrats' age, race, ideology or educational
background — suggesting that appealing to a specific group or two won't
fix the problem.
A separate survey from the Pew Research Center last fall found roughly
two-thirds of Democrats in September said their own party made them
“frustrated” compared to just 4 in 10 Republicans.
Among those frustrated Democrats, about 4 in 10 felt their party was not
fighting hard enough against Trump while about 1 in 10 said there was a
lack of good leadership or a cohesive agenda.
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People stand outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters
in Washington, June 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Holston, File)
Many Americans are negative about both parties
It's not just Democrats — Americans aren't thrilled with either
party right now.
Roughly one-quarter of Americans have a negative view of both the
Democratic Party and the Republican Party, according to the AP-NORC
data. That double-negativity is especially sharp among independents
and Americans under 45.
About half of U.S. adults only view one party positively, and only
about 1 in 10 feel good about both parties.
But Democrats' loss of goodwill is more recent. Polling over the
last 25 years from Gallup shows that Americans used to feel much
more positively toward the Democrats. Around 2010, public sentiment
turned against the Democrats. Since then, at least half of Americans
have held unfavorable views of the party, according to Gallup.
Negative views of the Democrats now rival the most negative points
in time for the Republicans.
Democrats hold health care as a strength
With health care at the top of Americans' priority lists as costs
and premiums rise, Democrats have a possible advantage going into
the midterm year.
About one-third of U.S. adults — 35% — trust the Democrats to do a
better job handling health care, compared to 23% for the
Republicans. That is broadly in line with the last time the question
was asked in October 2025.
At the same time, Republicans have lost some ground on the issues
that were key to Trump’s reelection — the economy and immigration.
But Democrats haven’t managed to capitalize on it. Only about 3 in
10 U.S. adults, 31%, say Republicans are the party they trust to
handle the economy, down slightly from 36% last year. But Democrats
haven’t made any gains on this issue; rather, slightly more
Americans now say they trust “neither” party to handle the economy.
Neither party has an edge on who is better equipped to manage the
cost of living, which was first asked in the most recent poll.
Republicans are also down slightly on handling immigration. Only
about one-third of U.S. adults trust them to better handle
immigration, an apparent decrease from 39% in October. Democrats
didn't appear to benefit from that shift either.
___
The AP-NORC poll of 1,156 adults was conducted Feb. 5-8 using a
sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which
is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin
of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage
points. The margin of sampling error for Democrats overall is plus
or minus 6.0 percentage points.
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