Bad news for Gov. Gavin Newsome and the Democratic Party. The Democrats are facing a polling crisis with American voters that party leaders will have trouble digging out of.
In fact, a stunning new NBC News poll that shows Democrats ranking near the very bottom of public opinion, and ahead of only one entry on the list: Iran’s radical Islamic regime.
The survey, conducted by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies between Feb. 27 and March 3, found that 52% of registered voters hold a negative view of Democrats, with just 30% saying they have a favorable view.
That’s a net favorability rating of negative 22 points.
To put that in perspective, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) — the agency Democrats have spent months hammering in their messaging — scored a net rating of negative 18, still better than the opposition party could manage. Even artificial intelligence, hardly a crowd favorite, came in third worst, trailing only the Democratic Party and Iran.
Meanwhile, Trump scored a negative 12 favorability rating and the Republican Party recorded a negative 14 favorability rating, significantly better than their Democratic counterparts.
The low score still represents a slight recovery for Democrats, who had a negative 28 net rating in March 2025, when just 27% of voters viewed the party positively against 55% who viewed it negatively. But with midterm elections on the horizon, a negative 22 rating is hardly a foundation for Newsom and his allies to build election campaigns on.
Party leaders have struggled to identify a clear path forward following their landslide 2024 presidential defeat, and the internal finger-pointing shows no signs of slowing. As “woke” Democrats debate whether to move left or toward the center ahead of 2026, American voters aren’t waiting around for them to figure it out.