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Even voters who previously backed Democrats cast the party as weak and overly focused on diversity and elites.<\/p>\n
Democrats conducting post-mortems on their sweeping losses in 2024 are finding more reason for alarm. And the problem isn\u2019t just Kamala Harris or Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
In a trio of focus groups, even voters who previously backed Democrats cast the party as weak and overly focused on diversity and elites, according to research by the progressive group Navigator Research.<\/p>\n
When asked to compare the Democratic Party to an animal, one participant compared the party to an ostrich because \u201cthey\u2019ve got their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they\u2019re failing.\u201d Another likened them to koalas, who \u201care complacent and lazy about getting policy wins that we really need.\u201d Democrats, another said, are \u201cnot a friend of the working class anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
The focus group research, shared first with POLITICO, represents the latest troubling pulse check for a party still sorting through the wreckage of its November losses and looking for a path to rebuild. Without a clear party leader and with losses across nearly every demographic in November, Democrats are walking into a second Trump presidency\u00a0without a unified strategy to improve their electoral prospects. And while some Democrats\u00a0blame Biden, others\u00a0blame inflation\u00a0and still others blame \u201closing hold of culture,\u201d the feedback from the focus groups found Democrats\u2019 problems are even more widespread and potentially long-lasting than a single election cycle.<\/p>\n
The focus groups offer \u201ca pretty scathing rebuke\u201d of the Democratic Party brand, said Rachael Russell, director of polling and analytics at Navigator Research, a project within the Hub Project, which is a Democratic nonprofit group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis weakness they see, [Democrats] not getting things done, not being able to actually fight for people \u2014 is something that needs to be figured out,\u201d Russell said. \u201cIt might not be the message, it might be the policy. It might be something a little bit deeper that has to be addressed by the party.\u201d<\/p>\n
The focus groups \u2014 held immediately after the 2024 election and conducted by GBAO, a Democratic polling firm \u2014 featured three kinds of voters: young men in battleground states who voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024; voters in battleground states who voted for Biden in 2020 but didn\u2019t vote at all in 2024; and voters in blue states who had previously voted for Democrats, a third party candidate or didn\u2019t vote in 2020 but voted for Trump in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what the Democratic elites and their politicians believe is often very different from what the average Democratic voter is,\u201d said a Georgia man who voted for Biden in 2020 but Trump in 2024. \u201cThe elites that run the Democratic Party \u2014 I think they\u2019re way too obsessed with appealing to these very far-left social progressivism that\u2019s very popular on college campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n
These voters voiced cautious optimism about Trump\u2019s second term, both in the focus groups and a post-election poll that found Trump\u2019s highest approval rating since 2020 in a GBAO survey. The national poll, which surveyed 1,000 people, found 47 percent viewed Trump favorably, while 50 percent disapproved of him \u2014 the highest marks he\u2019s received since he left office.<\/p>\n
Russell argued that Trump\u2019s high marks reflect a \u201choneymoon\u201d period, which she predicted will fade once he takes office: \u201cOnce things start happening, it\u2019s going to take a turn, and so it\u2019s going to rely really heavily on the actions in the first 100 days to see how we go from here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also noted that the polling suggests openings for Democrats on issues like abortion, health care and taxing the rich, as well as a fear that Trump may go too far on tariffs. Their survey also showed that two-thirds of voters said inflation should be the incoming president\u2019s top issue, but only a third of voters believed it was Trump\u2019s or Republicans\u2019 top issue.<\/p>\n
When the focus group participants were asked about inflation and tariffs, many of them said they didn\u2019t fully understand the policy, while others acknowledged they expected prices to go up.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I wouldn\u2019t want stuff to go up, but at the same time, in the long run, would it be better off for America and maybe having more stuff made here?\u201d said one man from Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
Even though the focus group voters did not solely blame Harris for their distaste of the Democratic Party, they also weren\u2019t happy about her candidacy. Participants described her as \u201cinauthentic,\u201d \u201cvery dishonest\u201d and \u201cdid not seem competent.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Arizona man, citing the time Harris said, \u201cyou better thank a union member,\u201d\u00a0during a speech in Detroit, said \u201cthat was very disingenuous to me because I didn\u2019t see an honest person that could be president.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed like a lot of what she came out and said wasn\u2019t really off-the-cuff, wasn\u2019t coming from her,\u201d said another man who voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024. \u201cSeemed like every interview, every time she came out and talked about something, it was planned out and never her thoughts, didn\u2019t seem genuine to her thoughts, whereas, Trump, even though you never really knew what he was going to say, when he was going to say it, it was always him and genuine to what he thought, so that\u2019s what swayed me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feedback on Harris comes as the vice president mulls her own future, weighing a third presidential run against a bid for California governor in 2026. Some party loyalists have said they\u2019d back another presidential run, arguing that Biden\u2019s late exit from the race burdened the vice president\u2019s three-month sprint. But others are not ready to get on board for it.<\/p>\n
Several participants also raised the transgender attack ad that the Trump campaign deployed against Harris, which showed a 2019 clip of her expressing support for gender affirming surgery for state prison inmates. The ad\u2019s tagline included: \u201cKamala is for they\/them. President Trump is for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats disagree on the potency of the attack ad, but several participants raised it unprompted in the focus groups.<\/p>\n
Lagging turnout was a major problem for Democrats in November. One woman from Georgia who didn\u2019t vote in 2024 said that she didn\u2019t agree with Harris\u2019 \u201cthinking that it\u2019s okay for children to change their body parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that there needs to be some parameters on what\u2019s accepted in society and what isn\u2019t. Some of the societal norms, and I think that the Democrats have tried to open that up a little too much,\u201d said a woman from Wisconsin who also didn\u2019t vote in 2024.<\/p>\n
When asked by the moderator if she was referring to the \u201ctrans issue,\u201d the woman said, \u201cprimarily that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n