The Democratic Party is in trouble. A new poll shows a record share of voters view the party unfavorably, leaving party leaders scrambling to figure out how to broaden their brand's appeal.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans have an "unfavorable view" of Democrats, said The Wall Street Journal, which commissioned the poll. That's the "highest share" of negative ratings for a political party in the paper's surveys going back to 1990. 

'Hit rock bottom'
Democrats have "hit rock bottom," said Nick Catoggio at The Dispatch. Despite all the terrible events that have happened in America since 1990, "at no point" have voters disliked a party as much as they do Democrats at this moment. Voters may "come around." But the Journal's poll shows that Republicans get higher marks than Democrats even on "issues on which Trump receives bad marks." 

These are "some tough numbers for Democrats," said G. Elliott Morris at Strength in Numbers. But there's a bright spot. The same poll also shows that Democrats have a three-point advantage in the "generic congressional ballot," which measures which party voters would want to represent them if the election were held today. That seemingly slim lead would be "large enough for the Democrats to win somewhere around 230-235 seats" in the House during the 2026 midterms.

'Nobody's voting on anything'
There's a "silver lining" for Democrats, said Jim Geraghty at The Washington Post. "If you are going to be unpopular, do it when almost nobody's voting on anything." There are a "handful" of special elections for the House of Representatives this year, but there's still more than a year to go before the 2026 midterm elections. The Journal's poll may be "ominous," but at the moment, it "doesn't count for anything."

Democrats "don't need to be popular," said Ed Kilgore at New York magazine. Right now, the party's candidates are favored to win "most of the competitive off-year races in 2025, including the New Jersey and Virginia governorships." If Democrats win a few elections, that will "take care of most of their morale problems."

The Food and Drug Administration is sounding the alarm on a widely used narcotic and recommending that steps be taken to restrict its availability. The substance, called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, is a synthetic derivative of the kratom leaf, which is commonly used for pain relief. But unlike kratom, experts say 7-OH has an opioid-like quality, which makes it addictive and easily abused. 

'More potent than morphine'
The compound is naturally found in the kratom plant, but manufacturers have "isolated and amplified" it to "make a more potent product," said The New York Times. 7-OH is "not a traditional opioid derived from the poppy plant" but has similar addictive attributes and "binds to opioid receptors in the brain," according to scientists.

The substance is increasingly being "added to energy drinks, gummies and supplements sold at gas stations and convenience stores," said The Associated Press. It's also widely available in smoke shops. 7-OH's opioid-like effects make it distinct from standard kratom, and companies that sell kratom have been urging a "crackdown on the products containing 7-OH, portraying it as a dangerously concentrated, synthetic form of the original ingredient."

Kratom is "like a light beer in terms of potency," said Chris McCurdy, a professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Florida, to Axios. But when 7-OH is extracted from kratom, it becomes "closer to Everclear, the grain spirit that can be 95% alcohol by volume," and "more potent than morphine."

FDA wants 7-OH reclassified
The FDA announced that it's urging the Drug Enforcement Agency to "classify 7-OH as a Schedule 1 substance, placing it on a list of drugs that include heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and ecstasy," said The Hill. This would make the drug harder to obtain at locations like gas stations and convenience stores. 

The recommendation follows a "thorough medical and scientific analysis by the FDA and is one of several efforts to address the agency's concerns around the growing availability and use of 7-OH opioid products," the FDA said in a press release. The agency is "specifically targeting 7-OH" and is "not focused on natural kratom leaf products."

There have been attempts to regulate the substance before, but they were largely unsuccessful. Government officials, said The Hill, are "prepared to deal with similar pushback again."