Democratic candidates have notched a series of wins in recent special elections — but a new AP-NORC poll finds views of the Democratic Party among rank-and-file Democrats have not bounced back since President Donald Trump ’s 2024 victory.
Only about 7 in 10 Democrats have a positive view of the Democratic Party, according to new polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While the overwhelming majority of Democrats still feel good about their party, they’re much less positive than they’ve been in the past.
The midterm elections are still many months away, and lackluster favorability doesn’t spell electoral doom. Other factors could benefit Democrats this year, including broadly negative views of Trump and other Republicans.
But the lack of enthusiasm could be a longer-term problem for the party. Democrats’ favorability of their party plummeted after the 2024 election. And despite overwhelming victories in November’s offseason elections and a string of wins since then, those views haven’t recovered.
The latest:
Trump says he’s not a racist, just ask Mike Tyson
At the White House’s Black History Month event, Trump didn’t mention his recent racist social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, as primates in a jungle that was later deleted.
But he shrugged off charges he’s racist, saying that former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who is Black, can vouch for him.
“Whenever they come out and they say, ‘Trump’s a racist’” the president told the event “Mike Tyson goes, ‘He’s not a racist, he’s my friend.’”
Trump also mentioned another Black former athlete he is friendly with, noting that former NFL running back Herschel Walker is his administration’s ambassador to “I don’t know, Bahamas? Bermuda?” The president later added, “Whatever.”
Walker is U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.
White House pardon czar praises trump for giving her a ‘second chance’ after prison term
White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson says her elevation from prison to a White House job is uniquely American.
Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence for federal drug and money laundering charges in 2018 and later pardoned her. She had spent more than two decades serving life without parole for a nonviolent drug offense.
As pardon czar, Johnson advises Trump and the administration on clemency cases.
“When you see me, you see a miracle, you see hope, you see second chances, and you see someone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work, do the hard work to help individuals gain their freedom,” Johnson said during a Black History Month event at the White House.
Johnson, who is Black, touted Trump as a friend to Black Americans.
“This president hears you,” she said. “This president cares for you.”
Trump remembers Jesse Jackson at Black History Month event
Trump remembered the late civil rights leader Jesse Jackson as “a real piece of work” but “a good man” and a hero.
“I knew him well long before becoming president, and he really was special, with lots of personality, grit and street smarts,” Trump said during a White House event commemorating Black History Month.
He said Jackson was “gregarious and someone who truly loved people and a force of nature,” adding he’ll be greatly missed.
Democratic leader supports censure of GOP congressman over anti-Muslim remarks
The comments from Rep. Randy Fine of Florida were “disgusting and part of a long track record of disgusting comments, Islamophobic comments, and xenophobic comments,” Jeffries said.
If the House produces a censure resolution against the GOP congressman, Jeffries said he would “strongly support it.”
Fine, who is Jewish, has drawn widespread rebuke for his latest remarks, saying he prefers having dogs over Muslims in the United States.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” he posted on social media.
The congressman was reacting to online posts from New York City about complaints over dog feces emerging in the melting snow. Some Muslims do not believe the animals should be kept indoors as pets. And one pro-Palestinian advocate joked in a post that the city was coming around to the view.
He has since doubled-down on his position and posted a number of images of dogs.
Jeffries called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to address the congressman’s behavior. “Get your members under control because if you don’t, we will,” he said.
Does Trump have a speech on aliens prepared? The White House hasn’t heard that
“A speech on aliens would be news to me,” Leavitt said when asked about the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, recently suggesting that Trump has a speech on aliens and would be ready to give at the “right time.”
Former President Barack Obama caused a stir when he recently suggested that UFOs were “real.”
Leavitt said with a laugh that the prospect that Trump has prepared remarks on aliens, “Sounds very exciting.”
“I’ll have to check in with our speechwriting team, and that would be of great interest to me personally,” she added. “And I’m sure all of you in this room, and apparently former President Obama, too.”
White House says Democratic proposal is ‘unserious’
Leavitt said during Wednesday’s briefing that the Democrats’ latest proposal to end a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security is “unserious.”
She said White House officials, but not President Trump, has been in contact with Democratic leaders over the impasse, blaming Democrats for forcing some federal employees to work without paychecks.
“Last night, they sent over a counter proposal that, frankly, was very unserious,” Leavitt said of Democrats. “And we hope they get serious very soon because Americans are going to be impacted by this.”
White House pushes back on Zelenskyy calling Trump’s pressure on Ukraine ‘unfair’
Ukrainian President President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with news site Axios on Tuesday that it’s “not fair” that Trump has persistently called on Ukraine to make concessions to Russia, but has been less forceful in his calls on President Vladimir Putin to come to the table to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“I think the president would respond to that by saying he does not think it’s fair that thousands of Ukrainians are losing their lives and Russians, too, in this deadly war,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said when asked about Zelenskyy criticism.
She added, “I think the president views this entire situation as very unfair, not just for Russians and Ukrainians who have lost their lives, but also for the American people and the American taxpayer who were footing the bill for this war effort.”
Trump must seek approval from Congress before any US action against Iran, top Democrat says
House minority leader Jeffries said he “wouldn’t put anything past this president,” when asked about potential US military action toward Iran.
But he insisted Trump cannot act alone in conducting military actions.
“The American people clearly are of the view that before any adverse military action is taken unilaterally by Donald Trump and Republicans, that, of course, Congress — consistent with our constitutional responsibility — should approve any acts of war,” Jeffries said.
Democrats demand ICE reforms on Day 5 of DHS shutdown
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said without “dramatic, bold, meaningful” reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the funding Homeland Security bill funding will not move forward.
Jeffries said Trump and Republicans need to “own up to the chaos that they’ve created” under the big tax breaks and spending cuts bill that sent some $75 billion to ICE.
Democrats are making a number of demands, including that immigration agents identify themselves by wearing body cameras and taking off their masks.
They further want agents to seek judicial warrants before entering private property and they’re pushing for a ban on immigration enforcement around sensitive locations, including schools, hospitals, houses of worship and polling places.
These remain “lines in the sand” in the negotiations with the administration, he said.
Over the weekend, Democrats sent the White House their latest offer. Jeffries said they are waiting for a response.
White House says local leaders need to invoke Stafford Act
As the sewage spill in the Potomac River continues to persist, the White House is continuing to push the leaders of Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia to ask for federal assistance.
The next step is for those officials to “step forward and to ask the federal government for help,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.
Leavitt said those leaders need to ask for the implementation of the Stafford Act, the 1988 law that outlines FEMA’s responsibilities as well as cost-sharing between the feds and state, so the federal government can go in and take control.
But local leaders have noted that the burst pipe is already under federal jurisdiction. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said again earlier Wednesday that the Potomac Interceptor is a D.C. pipe that is on federal land.
Leavitt chose to single out Moore during her briefing, saying Maryland infrastructure gets a “nearly failing grade” and that the governor has shown he’s “incapable of fixing this problem.”
What to know about the ‘equal time’ rule Stephen Colbert says led CBS to pull his Talarico interview
Stephen Colbert’s comments that network executives pulled his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico over fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration has prompted a conversation about the rules governing how media outlets treat political coverage.
The concern about the interview, which the late-night host referenced in his Monday night show and later posted in full online, stems from a requirement that broadcast stations give equal time to political candidates when they appear on-air.
Although there are multiple exemptions to the provision, the Trump administration through the Federal Communications Commission — which regulates the nation’s airwaves — has been moving to clamp down specifically on programs like Colbert’s, which the agency has suggested may be “motivated by partisan purposes.”
“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said on his program, ”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
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Late-night host Stephen Colbert isn’t backing down from public dispute with CBS bosses
Stephen Colbert isn’t backing down in an extraordinary public dispute with his bosses at CBS over what he can air on his late-night talk show.
On “The Late Show” Tuesday, Colbert said he was surprised by a statement from CBS denying that its lawyers told him he couldn’t show an interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico — which the host said had happened the night before.
He then took a copy of the network statement, wrapped it in a dog poop bag, and tossed it away.
Colbert had instead shown his Talarico interview on YouTube, but told viewers why he couldn’t show it on CBS. The network was concerned about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr trying to enforce a rule that required broadcasters to give “equal time” to opposing candidates when an interview was broadcast with one of them.
“We looked and we can’t find one example of this rule being enforced for any talk show interview, not only for my entire late-night career, but for anyone’s late-night career going back to the 1960s,” Colbert said.
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UN Security Council to hold high-level meeting on Gaza before Trump’s Board of Peace convenes
The United Nations session in New York was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved up after Trump announced the board’s meeting for that same date, and it became clear it would complicate travel plans for diplomats planning to attend both.
It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas between the United Nations’ most powerful body and Trump’s new initiative, whose broader ambitions to broker global conflicts have raised concerns in some countries that it may attempt to rival the U.N. Security Council.
The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia, among others, are expected to attend the monthly Mideast meeting of the 15-member council after many Arab and Islamic countries requested last week that it discuss Gaza and Israel’s contentious West Bank settlement project before some of them head to Washington.
▶ Read more about the meeting
Who is Les Wexner, and why is he being deposed?
Wexner, 88, is the retired founder of L Brands.
As one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent former friends, Wexner has spent years answering for their decades-long association. In court documents, prominent Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre claimed Wexner was one of the men Epstein trafficked her to.
Wexner’s name appears more than 1,000 times in the Epstein files, which his spokesperson said is not unexpected given their longstanding relationship. The documents shed new light on his relationship with Epstein — which ended bitterly after Wexner and his wife Abigail learned he’d been stealing from them — while raising many new questions.
Wexner has consistently denied any knowledge of or involvement in the millionaire financier’s crimes and says he never met Giuffre. He told L Brands investors in 2019 that he was embarrassed that he ever got close to someone “so sick, so cunning, so depraved.”
He has said he plans to cooperate with a subpoena from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
▶ Read more about Wexner’s friendship and falling out with Epstein
Billionaire Les Wexner: ‘I have done nothing wrong’
Billionaire retail mogul Les Wexner is preparing to emphatically deny knowledge of or participation in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes at a congressional deposition in Ohio on Wednesday.
In a statement to Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee released ahead of the deposition, Wexner says he is an ethical man, philanthropist and community builder who was “duped by a world-class con man.”
The 88-year-old former owner of Victoria’s Secret and other brands says he is eager to set the record straight. “And while I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.”
Why Trump’s comment on discussing Taiwan arms sales with China has raised concerns
Trump’s comment that he is discussing potential arms sales to Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping is raising concerns in Taipei as the island democracy relies on U.S. backing in the face of China ’s territorial claims.
On Monday, Trump told journalists he is discussing the potential sales with the Chinese leader, an unexpected statement experts say might violate decades-old foreign policy principles defining the United States’ relationship with self-ruled Taiwan.
“I’ve talked to him about it, made a good conversation, and we’ll make a determination pretty soon,” Trump said when asked about Xi’s opposition to the arms sales. He added he has “a very good relationship with President Xi.”
His comments have stirred a debate among some experts and politicians about whether this signals a potential change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan ahead of Trump’s planned visit to China in April.
▶ Read more about the context of and concerns around Trump’s comments
Trump administration appeals order to restore George Washington slavery exhibit
The Trump administration will appeal a federal judge’s order to restore a Philadelphia exhibit about the nine people enslaved by George Washington at his former home on Independence Mall.
The Justice Department insists the administration alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service properties. Park service workers last month abruptly removed exhibits from the Philadelphia site, prompting the city and other supporters of the exhibit to sue.
U.S. Senior Judge Cynthia M. Rufe on Monday granted an injunction ordering that the materials be restored while the lawsuit proceeds and barring Trump officials from creating new interpretations of the site’s history. The administration on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also based in Philadelphia.
▶ Read more about the exhibit and order
Following Trump’s lead, some GOP states seek to limit environmental regulations
Some Republican legislators are looking to restrict their state’s ability to set environmental regulations, a move that comes as Trump ’s administration pushes to roll back environmental rules on power plants, water and greenhouse gases.
The Alabama Legislature on Tuesday approved legislation backed by business groups that would prevent state agencies from setting restrictions on pollutants and hazardous substances exceeding those set by the federal government. In areas where no federal standard exists, the state could adopt new rules only if there is a “direct causal link” between exposure to harmful emissions and “manifest bodily harm” to humans.
Supporters said the Alabama measure would ground standards in “sound science” and prevent regulatory overreach. Environmental groups said it would cripple the state’s ability to respond to environmental or health risks, including a group of chemicals known as PFAS, or forever chemicals, that has contaminated swaths of the South.
The measure is the latest effort to restrict state-level environmental regulations.
▶ Read about other states’ efforts
Public health, green groups sue EPA over repeal of climate measure
A coalition of health and environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, challenging its determination that revoked a scientific finding that has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
A rule finalized last week rescinds a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding that determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The Obama-era finding underpins nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources heating the planet.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the endangerment finding an example of federal regulatory overreach, while the lawsuit says it enabled commonsense safeguards to cut climate pollution, including from cars and trucks.
Melania Trump to donate 2025 inaugural ball gown to the Smithsonian
The strapless black-and-white gown was designed by her longtime fashion designer and stylist, Herve Pierre, who is seen sketching it for the first lady and fitting her in it in “Melania,” her recently released documentary.
Trump is donating the gown to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History on Friday, according to a media advisory issued by the White House. The museum has a popular exhibit on first ladies that features more than two dozen of their gowns.
It will be Trump’s second donation to the exhibit. In 2017, she handed over the vanilla off-the-shoulder gown she wore to that year’s inaugural balls, which also was designed by Pierre.
Democrats hold an edge on health care, but struggle to make gains on the economy
Despite the internal negativity, Democrats have at least one potential advantage going into the midterm year.
About one-third of U.S. adults — 35% — trust the Democrats to do a better job handling health care, compared to 23% for the Republicans.
At the same time, Republicans have lost some ground on issues that were key to Trump’s reelection — the economy and immigration — but Democrats haven’t managed to capitalize on that.
Only 31% of U.S. adults say Republicans are the party they trust to handle the economy, down slightly from 36% last year. But Democrats haven’t made any gains on this issue; rather, slightly more Americans now say they trust “neither” party.
Many Americans are negative about both parties, polling shows
It’s not just Democrats — Americans aren’t thrilled with either party right now.
Only about one-third of U.S. adults have a favorable view of either the Democratic or Republican Party, according to the AP-NORC poll. Roughly one-quarter of Americans have a negative view of both, and that double-negativity is especially sharp among independents and Americans under 45.
But Democrats’ loss of goodwill is more recent. Polling over the past 25 years from Gallup shows that Americans used to feel much more positively toward the Democrats. Around 2010, public sentiment turned against them. Since then, at least half of Americans have held unfavorable views of the party.
Negative views of the Democrats now rival the most negative points in time for the Republicans.
Many Democrats are still down on the Democrats, a new AP-NORC poll finds
Democrats’ positivity about their party fell after Trump won the presidency in 2024. Despite a series of wins in recent special elections, polling shows morale hasn’t bounced back.
New AP-NORC polling shows that 70% of rank-and-file Democrats have a positive view of the Democratic Party. While the overwhelming majority of Democrats still feel good about their party, they’re much less positive than they’ve been in the past.
Democrats’ favorability of their party plummeted after the 2024 election, from 85% in September 2024 to 67% in October 2025.
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