Fewer than a fifth of Americans view Democrats as a party with strong leadership that is able to get things done, with Republicans scoring roughly double on both of those metrics, a new poll has found.
When asked about which party has strong leaders, 40% of American adults said Republicans, compared to 16% Democrats and 43% neither, according to a CNN/SSRS survey taken last month.
Asked about which party can “get things done,” 19% felt that descriptor applies to Democrats compared to 36% who said Republicans and 44% who felt neither.
All of this comes as a record share of Americans — 58% — want to see the federal government step up and do more to tackle problems vexing the country, a 30-year high for that figure, per CNN.
Generally speaking, over recent decades, a majority of respondents had faulted the government for “trying to do too many things” when asked that question by CNN.
Democrats have long sought to cast themselves as the party of government, while Republicans have portrayed themselves as the political machine set on reducing the government’s footprint in people’s lives.
The abysmal figure for Democrats comes against the backdrop of multiple polls over recent months showing the party underwater and lagging behind Republicans when it comes to their overall approval rating.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) chalked up the bleak survey data to the fact that Democrats are currently out of political power in Washington, DC.
“We don’t have the presidency right now, so that’s always going to be challenging a few months after a presidential election,” Jeffries told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“But we have to continue to make the case, one, that Democrats, of course, are the party that is determined to make life more affordable for everyday Americans,” he went on. “Understandably, there’s real frustration amongst the American people.”
The top House Democrat also pointed to some recent polls that have shown his party edging out Republicans when it comes to the generic congressional race heading into the 2026 cycle.
Democrats have a 2.4 percentage point lead over Republicans when it comes to the generic congressional race, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) later praised Jeffries for his leadership in response to footage of the top House Democrat addressing the bleak polling figures.
“House Democrats have never been more unified or organized than under Hakeem Jeffries’ leadership,” Khanna posted on X Sunday.
Democrats’ advantage over Republicans on the potent issue of abortion has also waned, slipping from a 16-point edge in the fall of 2023 to roughly 10 points, according to the CNN poll.
That’s despite the survey finding that a staggering 36% of the public want abortion to be legal under any circumstances, one of the highest margins CNN’s survey has found on that front in years.
Broadly speaking, respondents also felt that the two parties have significant differences, with 81% saying that there are important distinctions between Republicans and Democrats. That’s the highest that figure has been in over two decades.
The CNN survey sampled 2,539 adults between May 5-26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
