Which Democrats reflect the party’s core values? Here’s who voters said in poll
Anger and disunity were on full display in the Democratic Party after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and nine other Democrats voted to pave the way for the passage of a Republican-crafted spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
Now, a new poll shows Democrats are split on who best represents the divided party’s values.
Schumer — one of ten Democrats to vote to invoke cloture on the bill, allowing it to pass by a simple majority vote in the Republican-controlled Senate — ultimately voted no on its final passage on March 14. But the shakeup highlighted the rift among Democrats over how to oppose President Donald Trump’s agenda.
A new CNN/SSRS poll released on March 16 found that just 2% of Democrat voters think the minority leader from New York best represents the party’s core values.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who some view as a candidate to primary Schumer in 2028, topped the list with 10% saying she best represented Democrats’ core values. Former Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders trailed Ocasio-Cortez with 9% and 8% support, respectively, according to the poll.
Ocasio-Cortez said Senate Democrats “destroyed” the party’s plan on the spending bill and Sanders called for a “major transformation” in party leadership.
Harris did not publicly comment on the bill, which passed by a margin of 54 to 46 and was signed into law by Trump, keeping the government funded for 6 months.
Favorability reaches 19-year low
Just 29% of American adults had a favorable view of the Democratic Party when asked their opinion between March 6 and 9, according to the CNN/SSRS poll.
This is a 19-year low for Democrats, according to the backlog of responses dating back to 2006. Favorability has been on a steady decline since December 2022.
In 2025, 54% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the party, the poll found.
Opinions of the Republican party have not drastically changed in recent years, the poll found. Favorability has teetered between 30% and 42% since the start of Trump’s first term in 2017.
As of March 2025, 36% of Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party and 48% have an unfavorable opinion, according to the poll.
Should Democrats in Congress make compromises?
Democratic voters also weighed in on bipartisanship in Congress in an NBC poll published March 16.
Sixty-five percent of Democrats said they want Democrats in Congress to “stick to their positions” even if that means things don’t get done on Capitol Hill, the poll of 406 Democrats found. Thirty-two percent of registered Democrats want their representatives to make compromises with Trump.
When asked the question in April 2017, the responses were nearly the opposite. Fifty-nine percent called for compromise with Trump while 33% wanted Democrats in Congress to hold firm on their positions.
The CNN/SSRS poll of 1,206 American adults was conducted between March 6 to 9 with a margin of error of +/- 3.3. NBC polled 1,000 registered voters between March 7 to 11 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.1.
