Democrats: How to rebuild a damaged brand

Democrats should give JB Pritzker "a serious look as a presidential candidate"

(Image credit: AP)

published 12 May 2025

"Democrats might be tempted to take solace" from President Trump's tumbling poll numbers, said Noah Rothman in National Review. "They shouldn't." While Trump's net approval rating has sunk more than 5 percentage points since he took office in January, to about 45 percent, Democrats are doing even worse, with only 33 percent of voters viewing the party favorably. Since Democrats held a healthy 6-point lead over Republicans at this point in Trump's first term, that's bad news for the party's 2026 midterm prospects and proof that "the well of mistrust Democrats cultivated in the Biden years goes deep." To win back voters, top lawmakers have offered only "impotent theatrics." Sen. Cory Booker and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries staged a pointless 12-hour sit-in on the U.S. Capitol steps to protest the Trump agenda, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer went on TV to tout a "very strong letter" he wrote to the president. They clearly have no idea how to "repair their party's image."

JB Pritzker does, said Renee Graham in The Boston Globe. In a speech to New Hampshire Democrats last week, the Illinois governor blasted the "simpering timidity" of party leaders in the face of Trump's authoritarian threat and called "for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption." And he slammed "do-nothing Democrats" who want to blame the party's 2024 losses "on our defense of Black people and trans kids and immigrants—instead of their own lack of guts and gumption." It's an electrifying wake up from the "Schumer stupor" and sure to be welcomed by Democratic voters and left-leaning independents, 74 percent of whom think elected officials aren't pushing back against Trump hard enough. Democrats should give Pritzker "a serious look as a presidential candidate," said Perry Bacon Jr. in The Washington Post. A billionaire from a deep-blue state, he may not be the ideal nominee for 2028. But "he's great for the party now."

A message of "all resistance, all the time" will not fix the "working-class-size hole" in the Democratic coalition, said Ruy Teixeira in The Liberal Patriot. Freshman Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego has an approach that could do the job: The Marine veteran criticized the Biden administration for lax border enforcement, has railed against Trump's government cuts, and is "unafraid to highlight the non-woke priorities of Latino working-class men who all want, as he put it, a 'big-ass truck.'" Progressive primary voters may not tolerate such "apostasy," and the mission of detoxifying the Democratic brand "may not matter" if Trump's approval rating keeps nose-diving. But outrage alone is not a winning strategy.