Democrats’ approval rating with registered voters has plunged to a 35-year low, while Republicans maintain an edge on most of the top issues Americans care about, a new poll found.
A whopping 63% of registered voters view Democrats unfavorably, dramatically eclipsing the 33% who had a positive impression, marking the lowest rating they scored since 1990, according to a Wall Street Journal survey.
That abysmal rating for Democrats comes against the backdrop of lackluster figures for President Trump and Republicans. Trump’s approval rating sits at 46%, with 52% who disapprove of the commander in chief. The figure is higher than this point during his first term, which was 40%.
Republicans’ approval rating clocked in at a net seven points unfavorable.
If congressional elections were held today, 46% of voters indicated they’d back a Democrat, compared to 43% who would support a Republican.
A majority, 51%, also said the change Trump is bringing has resulted in dysfunction and chaos, compared to 45% who agreed the president was making positive adjustments.
Still, across the board, voters preferred the GOP approach over the Dem position on a range of key issues.
Voters trusted Republicans over Democrats on inflation by about 10 points; on immigration by 17 points; and handling illegal immigrants by 17 points, the survey found.
In one unique finding, respondents disapproved of Trump’s tariffs by 17 points and Republicans still scored 7 points higher than Democrats on that issue.
“The Democratic brand is so bad that they don’t have the credibility to be a critic of Trump or the Republican Party,” John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster who helped conduct the survey, told the outlet.
“Until they reconnect with real voters and working people on who they’re for and what their economic message is, they’re going to have problems.”
Anzalone teamed up with Republican Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s trusted pollster during the 2024 campaign cycle, to conduct the survey for the Wall Street Journal.
One area where congressional Democrats topped Republicans was vaccine policy and healthcare, per the poll.
Democrats are still reeling from their 2024 election loss, and key figures within the party have openly vented that the party doesn’t have a strong message or sense of direction.
Typically, the party out of power in the White House is favored to have a strong performance in the midterm elections, which is why many observers believe the Democrats are well-positioned heading into 2026.
However, the Wall Street Journal poll shows Democrats are still remarkably anemic as the party struggles to find its footing.
Around this time in 2017, voters called themselves Democrats over Republicans by 6 percentage points, per the poll. Democrats later went on to flip 40 House seats in the 2018 midterm elections.
This go-around, Republicans have a 1-point edge in party identification over Democrats.
Republicans have a threadbare 219 to 212 House majority and are scrambling to defy history by retaining control during the 2026 midterms.
The Wall Street Journal poll sampled 1,500 registered voters between July 16–20 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
