Dems’ own polling shows massive brand problem ahead of 2026

“The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people’s challenges,” said Molly Murphy, one of the pollsters who worked on the research by Navigator, a project within the Hub Project, a Democratic nonprofit group. For example, the poll found a whopping 69 percent of voters said Democrats were “too focused on being politically correct.” Another 51 percent said “elitist” described the Democratic Party well. In the Navigator survey of 62 competitive House districts across the country, voters said they trust Republicans over Democrats on handling the economy by a 5-point margin, 46 percent to 41 percent. Republicans, too, had only 38 percent of voters who said GOP’s policies were focused on the middle and working class, while 56 percent said they were focused on the wealthy. But to take advantage of that opening, Murphy said, “we can’t get distracted by distractions, and Trump and Republicans are excellent at throwing up those distractions.” “Democrats need to keep doing what they’re doing on tariffs and health care costs because that’s what voters are telling us they care about,” Murphy said.