Ex-CNN analyst warns Dems face ‘giant problem’ amid ‘terrible’ favorability

NewsNation political contributor Chris Cillizza warned on his “So What” Substack Monday that the Democratic Party is in serious trouble amid historically low favorability numbers.

Recent polling by CNN and The Wall Street Journal found that Democrats have favorability ratings of 28% and 33%, respectively. Cillizza said on his Substack that the numbers are indicative of “a brand crisis” for the party.

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“I spend a lot of my time talking about Donald Trump because he’s the president of the United States. He’s the dominant political figure in the country,” Cillizza said. “And no, his policies and his presidency to date have not proved popular. His approval rating is in kind of the mid-40s. People, as I said in The Wall Street Journal poll, disapprove of how he’s handling inflation, how he’s handling tariffs, how he’s handling immigration, how he’s handling the broader economy.”

“The problem, of course, is — if you’re a Democrat — is that elections are two options, right? And if the other option, meaning Democrats, is seen as not really an option by the public, that’s a giant problem,” he continued. “I think Democrats have been feeling better lately because they look at Trump’s numbers and they think, ‘Well, surely we’re going to win.’ And you might win in 2026 just based on historical trends — the fact that Republicans control everything, people want to send a message, maybe give a little bit of control back to the other party.”

However, Cillizza warned that even if Democrats win in the midterms, they should not interpret such a victory as an endorsement of the party’s agenda.

“People have no idea really what the Democratic Party stands for. And to the extent that they think they know, they don’t like it, right? So, it’s weak, it’s woke and it’s anti-Trump. That’s what people will say about the Democratic Party,” he said. “That is not getting it done. 33% favorable in the Wall Street Journal poll, 28% favorable in the CNN poll — these are record-low numbers. You cannot — if you are a Democrat — you cannot just say like, ‘Eh, they’ll take care of themselves.’ No. You are in a brand crisis. Make no mistake — this is a crisis of the brand.”

“The Democratic Party is in a terrible place broadly in terms of favorability. You need to — if you’re a Democrat — focus on: What do Democrats stand for? How can they make that message and convince people that they are the party that should be trusted to lead this country in 2026 and especially in 2028?” he added. “And the reality is, looking at numbers like this, they are starting in a big hole — and it’s gotten worse, not better, since the election. And that, to me, if I’m a Democratic Party leader, is very concerning.”

A May Puck/Echelon poll also found that likely voters mainly viewed the Democratic Party as “liberal, weak, corrupt,” and Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters most commonly perceived their own party as “weak.”

Moreover, only 27% of registered voters said they approved of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, down from 39% in February 2024, according to a July 1 Marist/NPR/PBS News poll.

A July 16 Quinnipiac University poll also found that just 19% of voters approve of Democrats in Congress, marking an all-time low for the polling outlet.

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