What Are Democrats Thinking?

Here at Liberal Currents, we often consider and reflect on the mood of the nation, and on the mood of the Democratic base. For the most part, this means looking at election results and at polling conducted by other organizations. I’ve frequently tried my hand at both methods. But a much easier way to figure out what Democratic voters are feeling is to just ask them. So I did.

Partnering with the wonderful folks at the Center for Strategic Politics, I put together a poll of Democratic voters. We asked 683 Democratic voters who they might support in the presidential primary that seems set to start any month now, whether Democratic senators should end the filibuster, and how they would feel if Trump died overnight, plus dozens of other questions.

Who do Democratic voters want to be president?

When Democratic voters are asked who they would vote for if the presidential primary was held right now, the most common single response across almost every recent poll, including this one, remains Kamala Harris, vice president under President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee last cycle. Our poll shows that 25% of Democrats would vote for her today, and 33% of Democrats have her as either their first or second choice. The results for a smaller, less crowded field, reported in the crosstabs document linked above, are quite similar.

For comparison, in November 2019, a poll by Morning Consult and Politico estimated Joe Biden was the first choice of approximately 20% of self-identified Democrats. But back then, the only other candidate also attracting double-digit support was Bernie Sanders. This cycle, several candidates are all above the 10% threshold and others, like Mark Kelly and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are just below 10% but get a quite high share of second-choice support.

Harris also remains incredibly popular with the Democratic base despite her close loss in 2024. 70% of Democrats reported having a very or somewhat favorable impression of her, a rate only matched by Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and the Democratic Party out of the figures and groups we polled, and only significantly surpassed by Barack Obama.

However, all of the serious presidential contenders this cycle are rather popular with Democratic voters. Everyone, it seems, has been adept at competing in the so-called invisible primary thus far.

So while Harris remains the obvious frontrunner—nothing in our poll’s results throws that into doubt—the high approval ratings for her competition do suggest Democratic voters aren’t exactly averse to voting for someone else when primary season actually arrives. Poll numbers shifting quite suddenly once Senator Ossoff or Representative Ocasio-Cortez actually announce a presidential campaign would hardly be inexplicable.

What do Democratic voters believe?

The Democratic Party is a mass party. Because of this fact, it tends to be a fractious party. Party members and politicians frequently and loudly disagree about the direction the party should take both before and after every election season. The Democratic base, however, does appear to be quite unified on at least a few different topics.

According to our poll, about 80% of Democratic voters report that they care about candidates’ foreign policy positions, a number likely boosted somewhat by the ongoing conflicts in Iran and Gaza. A majority of Democrats are also in support of ending the filibuster and changing local zoning codes to facilitate more residential construction. Another question we asked, not included in the graph above, found that Democrats on net highly support the public ownership and operation of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, the electrical grid, rail system, and artificial intelligence.

Even more surprising, perhaps, given Democratic members of Congress’ past support for the Laken Riley Act and other anti-immigration bills, is the supermajority of Democratic voters who agree that “the United States would be a better country if it accepted more immigrants from many different backgrounds”: 68%. The percentage of Democrats who support the next Democratic president expanding the Supreme Court is slightly higher, at 69%.

And while a candidate criticizing the Democratic establishment doesn’t quite seem to win the hearts of a majority of Democratic voters, it attracts a sizable plurality, with 46% of Democrats reporting that they’re more likely to support such candidates in Democratic primaries.

Per our poll, the modal Democrat is also opposed to moving backwards on trans rights, dislikes the existence of billionaires, and would not support a U.S.-China war if China decides to invade Taiwan. The most unpopular single proposition that we polled is abolishing the Senate, a proposal that’s danced through the headlines recently due to its prominent position in the Democratic Socialists of America’s political program. (DSA, notably, is at +34 net approval among Democratic voters.) Check out the Reconstruction Papers for ideas on how to fix the Senate without abolishing it altogether though.

What do Democratic voters want from the next president?

Democratic voters obviously want to see a lot of different changes enacted under the next administration. But which do they want the most? When asked to describe what the first priority of the next Democratic president should be, respondents’ thoughts varied wildly. The most common theme—across self-reported ideologies—was the economy, inflation, and cost of living. But just about every policy issue had at least a few respondents championing it as the most important topic. 

Interestingly, self-identified progressives and socialists were far more likely to mention healthcare or the social safety net than self-identified liberals, conservatives, or moderates, but for the most part the general ranking was rather consistent across the three groups: affordability concerns, then institutional repairs, then foreign policy, and then other various issues.

Here are ten of the unedited responses touching on the most frequently mentioned topics:

• “Restoring our democracy and upholding the constitution. The three branches of government should be equal in power and the executive branch has usurped that power. Likewise, the Supreme Court is packed with right wing judges who are lining their pockets and interpreting constitutional issues in very narrow ways to promote a right wing agenda.”
• “I think the first priority for the next Democratic president should be economic issues. I think the trade tariffs need to be reversed.”
• “Just do EVERYTHING opposite of Trump.   Remove all the evil he did. Remove his name from everything”
• “Stop terrorizing and deporting illegal immigrants that are not criminals”
• “Make sure new data centers are banned and laws are passed to regulate AI.”
• “Environmental issues like fighting against climate change effectively”
• “Be friendly with all countries adopt LIVE AND LET LIVE policies”
• “Wake up and become more centrists.  This DSA propaganda is destroying the party.”
• “Making this world a better place. Fixing the economy, helping the poor and not the rich.”
• “The economy stupid. Broaden the party. Parties are inclusive of different beliefs, not exclusive to one set.”

Who do Democratic voters want to be held accountable?

As a couple of the unedited responses above might suggest, many Democratic voters want, more than anything else, accountability for the last two years of Trump’s administration decimating American institutions. When polled, Democrats were more than willing to endorse the next Democratic administration pursuing criminal prosecution of members of the Trump administration for a variety of reasons.

Unsurprisingly, the most consensus was found around prosecuting members of the Trump administration—and Stephen Miller specifically—for actions taken by ICE and CBP. However, a sizable majority of Democrats also cosigned prosecuting members of the administration for bombing boats in Latin America and potential war crimes carried out during the war with Iran, and Pete Hegseth for directing the U.S. military to break international and U.S. law.

The poll even suggested that 57% of Democrats would be supportive of the next Democratic president prosecuting “members of the Trump and Biden administrations for actions taken related to Israel's genocide in Gaza.” That particular finding, though, is likely more easily interpreted as a directional signal of Democratic voters’ opinion on Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza than as a suggestion of a course of action for the next president.

How happy will Democratic voters be if Trump was no longer president? Would they support a coup?

In perhaps the least surprising finding of the entire poll, Democratic voters report that they would be very, very, very, very happy if Trump was successfully impeached and removed from office.

Really, poll participants reported that they’d be happy with just about any way that Trump could be removed from office, up to and including a military coup directly removing him from office in order to “safeguard the Constitution,” or Trump simply dying in his sleep. The one method that a sizable plurality of Democrats report would make them feel worse is assassination. Thankfully, on net Democrats are not pro political violence.

Who do Democratic voters trust?

Since around the start of the century, social trust in America has been on a steady decline. Public trust in government has been declining for basically the last quarter of a century, according to Pew Research polls, while trust in fellow Americans has stagnated over the same time period. Gallup polls show that trust in mass media has also plummeted.

Our poll suggests that Democratic voters have also been affected by the falling levels of trust in the government and politicians: Only 24% and 19% respectively report somewhat or strongly trusting those two groups. CEOs and business leaders are also distrusted at around the same rates, especially by progressive and socialist voters.

However, Democrats appear to have largely weathered the falling levels of trust in media organizations, with a supermajority reporting that they trust media organizations like the New York Times and PBS. They also seem to highly trust immigrants, their neighbors, and their friends and family. “Strangers,” however, are on net distrusted, which may be a stumbling block when the next Democratic administration begins trying to create and maintain high-trust institutions.

Finally, are Democrats “woke”?

Yes. (On average.)

What does this mean?

In brief, Democratic voters aren’t happy with the leadership of the party they nevertheless choose to support. 32% of Democrats report that they have an unfavorable opinion of Chuck Schumer and 22% have an unfavorable opinion of Hakeem Jeffries. For comparison, only 14% of Democrats have an unfavorable opinion of the party as a whole. A plurality wants to vote for candidates willing to frequently call out the party establishment and majorities want institutional changes Democratic members of Congress regard icily, like abolishing the filibuster.

Most interestingly, according to our poll Democratic voters still aren’t rallying around a single 2028 standardbearer yet. It seems likely that this state will persist through at least next year.

But when Democratic voters do consolidate around a single person to “throw the bums out,” whether that be current frontrunner Kamala Harris or some outsider candidate, it will almost certainly be the candidate who can most credibly promise the creation of a new, post-Trump political order. The demand that unifies the Democratic Party’s base in 2026 is simple: oppose the Trump administration and impose consequences for the rampant lawlessness they have observed for the past two years.

A word of advice for all the presidential hopefuls who regularly read Liberal Currents, convince Democratic voters that you want to do that as much as they do and you’ll do well on Super Tuesday.

Featured image is People march during the "No Kings" rally in St Paul, Minnesota, by Lorie Shaull