58% of Democrats Say Their Party Needs New LeadershipMonday, June 26, 2017
Some Democrats are saying it's
time for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to go, arguing that losses in this year's special congressional elections show that their party needs new, younger leadership.
Most Democrats agree.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 31% of Likely Democratic Voters believe the current national leadership of their party is representative of most Democrats. Most (58%) feel instead that the party needs to find new leaders. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided.
By comparison, a plurality (48%) of Likely Republican Voters believes the GOP?s current national leadership is representative of most Republicans. Slightly fewer (45%) say the party needs to find new leaders.
Among all likely voters, only 23% feel the Democratic leadership is representative of their voter base, while 64% think new leadership is needed. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.
Just 30% of all voters feel the Republican leadership is representative of most voters in the party; 60% say a change is needed at the top. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 22 and 25, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Just 11% of Democrats said in late April that their party?s efforts to oppose President Trump during his first 100 days in office were successful.
Voters in most demographic categories see a need for new leadership in both parties but say the need is even stronger for Democrats.
Men feel more strongly than women that both parties need a change.
The age and race of a voter doesn't make much of a difference when it comes to perceptions of the current Democratic leadership, but middle-aged voters are the strongest believers that a change is needed in the GOP.
Fifty percent (50%) of voters who Strongly Approve of the job Trump is doing view the current leadership of the GOP as representative of most Republicans. Among voters who Strongly Disapprove of the president's job performance, 55% say Democrats need to find new leaders.
Most voters agreed in late February that it was bad for the country and for the Democratic Party if Democrats continued to totally oppose everything Trump does. Even Democrats were conflicted about this anti-Trump strategy.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) say America is a more divided nation after Trump's first few months in office.
Also in February, unsuccessful presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders was the first choice of Democrats to run against Trump in 2020, with Hillary Clinton in second. But over 60% of Democrats liked someone else.
The successful Republican candidate in last week's special congressional election in Georgia repeatedly linked her Democratic opponent with Pelosi throughout the campaign. The San Francisco Democrat has consistently been the most unpopular congressional leader in regular surveying, both when she was House speaker and in the years after.
Just weeks into the new Congress, Republicans were a lot less critical of their congressional representatives, while Democrats were less enthusiastic about theirs.
Voters are more likely to believe Trump has a plan for where he wants to take the nation than either of the major national political parties.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/june_2017/58_of_democrats_say_their_party_needs_new_leadership
