What The Hell America!

A large majority of registered Democrats and Independent voters who lean Democratic are frustrated with the party, see no clear leader of it, and want to see elected officials fight harder for working people and against Republican President Donald Trump, according to a pair of polls released Friday.

“Democratic voters are sending a clear message: They want leaders who will fight Trump and put working people first,” said Danielle Deiseroth, executive director of Data for Progress, the progressive think tank behind the surveys. “The base is tired of weak opposition and business-as-usual politics.”

“This level of discontent is unsustainable for a party looking to build back in the wake of major losses—at a certain point, Democratic leaders will need to show voters that they are taking a stronger stance against Trump, or step aside for someone who will,” Deiseroth added.

“This level of discontent is unsustainable for a party looking to build back in the wake of major losses.”

The polling—released nearly five months after the election in which Democrats lost the White House and both chambers of Congress—shows that when asked how they would grade the Democratic Party on its response to Trump, who returned to power in January, 70% of voters said C or below, and 21% said F.

Voters were also divided in terms of who they see as the current leader of the Democratic Party. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the race for the White House in November, was at the top, but with only 17%. She was followed by former President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who tied at 15%.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) tied with “no one” at 11%, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 9% and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) at 6%.

Sanders, who sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, announced Friday that Ocasio-Cortez will join the Los Angeles stop of his “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour on Saturday—as she did across the U.S. West last week, drawing the biggest crowd of either of their careers at a rally in Denver, Colorado.

“Today, the oligarchs and the billionaire class are getting richer and richer and have more and more power,” Sanders said Friday. “Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and most of our people are struggling to pay for healthcare, childcare, and housing. This country belongs to all of us, not just the few. We must fight back.”

The new polling makes clear that voters want elected officials to fight back in a variety of ways, including legal challenges, media appearances, voter registration drives, letter-writing and phone-banking campaigns, procedural tactics like the filibuster, supporting worker walkouts, consumer boycotts, mass protests—including at government buildings—and disrupting Trump campaign events.

Voters are specifically disappointed with Schumer: 61% said he isn’t doing enough to fight Trump. After being told about the Senate majority leader’s decision earlier this month to lead a group of 10 caucus members who helped Republicans pass a stopgap spending bill, 51% said Democrats in the chamber should choose a new leader—and if they did, 66% of voters would want “someone who fights harder against Trump and the Republican agenda.”

A large majority of voters of all ages want elderly Democratic Party leaders “to retire and pass the torch to the younger generation.” Big majorities also want party leadership to be diverse in race and gender, and to prioritize funding for programs addressing issues such as healthcare and housing, even if it increases the national deficit.

As the party battles Trump and rebuilds after November’s devastating losses, voters are stressing that Democrats must emphasize how they will fight for the working class. Large majorities urged them to focus on taking on corporate interests and the Democratic establishment, taxing the wealthy, lowering prices, and “laying out a bold, progressive agenda for economic and political reform.”

The Data for Progress polling follows an internal survey conducted earlier this month by Our Revolution, the progressive political organizing group launched as a continuation of Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. That survey of 9,024 members found that nearly 90% of respondents believe Schumer should step aside as Senate minority leader and 86% would support a primary challenger for his Senate seat, should he refuse to step aside. Calls for Ocasio-Cortez to primary him have mounted throughout the month.

“These survey results point to an undeniable crisis of confidence in Chuck Schumer and Democratic leadership at a time of unprecedented executive overreach and corporate takeover of the American federal government,” Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of Our Revolution, said at the time. “It’s time to step up or step down.”