Democrats are more pessimistic about future after Trump victory: Survey

Democrats are more pessimistic about the future of their party after President-elect Trump’s victory over Vice President Harris earlier this month, a new survey shows.

The data, released Friday by the Pew Research Center, found that nearly half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 49 percent, are pessimistic about the future. On the flip side, around 51 percent said they are “very or somewhat optimistic.” 

The negativity is over 20 points higher than it was after the 2022 midterm elections, according to Pew. The gloom within the party is also 10 points higher than it was when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Trump, the poll noted.

Democrats under the age of 50 were more likely than those who are older to share a pessimistic outlook — 50 percent to 39 percent. Progressive Democrats were also more likely than moderates to have negative feelings after Trump's win, 52 percent to 46 percent, per the survey.

After securing the majority in both chambers of Congress and the White House, Republicans have a higher level of optimism. The positivity in the most recent survey is much higher compared to after his first win in 2016 — 86 percent to 79 percent, respectively.

Following the 2022 midterms, optimism within the GOP hovered around 65 percent, according to the poll. This was likely due to an expected red wave that did not materialize.

Conservative GOP members are more optimistic about the party’s future than those who are more moderate or liberal-leaning, 92 percent to 78 percent, the survey shows.

Pew also found that more Americans said the GOP represents their interests than those who said the same about the Democratic Party.

Around half of Americans, 50 percent, said the GOP represents “people like them” somewhat or very well compared to 43 percent who said the same about the opposing party. 

The Pew Research data was part of a survey conducted between Nov 12-17 among 9,609 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 1.5 percentage points.