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USA Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Democrats want new leaders, focus on pocketbook issues, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
James Oliphant and Jason Lange Reuters WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - Democrats want new leaders for their party, which many feel isn't focusing enough on economic issues and is over-emphasizing issues like transgender rights and electric vehicles, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The poll identified a deep disconnect between what Democrats say their priorities are and the issues they believe party leaders care about most ahead of next year's midterm elections, when they hope to crack Republican control of Congress. They see their elected officials as not focused on helping families make ends meet and reducing corporate influence. Democrat Kamala Harris' November loss to Republican Donald Trump has left the party rudderless and sparked a round of soul-searching about the path forward. The poll shows that party leaders have work to do in recruiting candidates for Congress in 2026 -- and for the White House in 2028. Some 62% of self-identified Democrats in the poll agreed with a statement that "the leadership of the Democratic Party should be replaced with new people." Only 24% disagreed and the rest said they weren't sure or didn't answer. Just 30% of Republicans polled said they thought their party leadership should be replaced. Democrats' dissatisfaction is also playing out in leadership changes, including this week's resignation of Randi Weingarten, the influential president of the American Federation of Teachers, from the Democratic National Committee -- which followed the ouster of progressive activist David Hogg. The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 4,258 people nationwide and online June 11 through 16, including 1,293 Democrats. It had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points for Democrats. It found that Democrats want the party to focus on their day-to-day needs and want wealthier Americans to pay more in taxes. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is viewed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, agrees. "People don't trust us, they don't think we have their backs on issues that are core to them, which are these kitchen table issues," Newsom said on his podcast in April. DEMOCRATS 'IMPATIENT' Democratic strategists who reviewed the poll's findings said they send a clear message. "Voters are very impatient right now," said Mark Riddle, who heads Future Majority, a Democratic research firm. "They want elected officials at all levels to address the cost of living, kitchen-table issues and affordability." The poll found a gap between what voters say they care about and what they think the party's leaders prioritize. It was particularly wide on the issue of reducing corporate spending in political campaigns, where 73% of Democrats said they viewed putting limits on contributions to political groups like Super PACs a priority, but only 58% believed party leaders prioritize that. That issue matters to Sam Boland, 29, a Democrat in Minneapolis, who views Super PAC money as a way to 'legally bribe' candidates. 'Politicians want to keep their jobs and are afraid of the impact that publicly funded elections might have,' Boland said. Along that line, 86% of Democrats said changing the federal tax code so wealthy Americans and large corporations pay more in taxes should be a priority, more than the 72% of those surveyed think party leaders make it a top concern. The Republican-controlled Congress is currently pushing forward with Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill that would provide greater benefits to the wealthy than working-class Americans. Anthony Rentsch, 29, of Baltimore, said he believes Democratic leaders are afraid to embrace more progressive policies such as higher taxes on the wealthy. 'A lot of Trump's success has been with populist messages, and I think there's similar populist message Democrats can have,' Rentsch said. Democrats' own priorities appeared more in line with party leaders on abortion rights - which 77% cited as a priority. NEW BLOOD Dissatisfaction over the party's priorities on several economic policies was stronger among younger Democrats like Boland and Rentsch. For example, only 55% of Democrats aged 18-39 thought the party prioritized paid family leave that would allow workers to care for sick family members and bond with a new baby, but 73% said it was a priority for them. Among older Democrats, the same share - 68% - that said the issue was a priority for them said it was a priority for party leaders. Rentsch said that criticizing Trump over his conduct won't be enough to win over skeptical voters. 'That can't be it,' Rentsch said. 'It has to be owning those issues that have an impact on their economic well-being and their physical and mental well-being.' Democratic respondents said the party should be doing more to promote affordable childcare, reduce the price of prescription drugs, make health insurance more readily available and support mass transit. They view party leaders as less passionate about those issues than they are, the poll found. Even so, some Democrats argue the party also needs to stand toe-to-toe with Trump. 'They gotta get mean,' said Dave Silvester, 37, of Phoenix. Other Democrats said the party sometimes over-emphasizes issues that they view as less critical such as transgender rights. Just 17% of Democrats said allowing transgender people to compete in women and girls' sports should be a priority, but 28% of Democrats think party leaders see it as such. Benjamin Villagomez, 33, of Austin, Texas said that while trans rights are important, the issue too easily lends itself to Republican attacks. 'There are more important things to be moving the needle on,' said Villagomez, who is trans. 'There are more pressing issues, things that actually matter to people's livelihoods.' Democratic strategists say that if Trump's trade and tax policies lead to higher prices and an increased budget deficit, the party needs to be ready to take full advantage in next year's elections, which will decide control of Congress. 'This recent polling data indicates Democrats have room for improvement on criticizing Trump on the economy and making it clear to voters that Democrats are the ones standing up for working people,' said Ben Tulchin, who served as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' pollster for his two presidential campaigns. The party needs to get beyond portraying itself 'as the lesser of two evils," Boland, the Minneapolis Democrat, said. 'It needs to transform itself into a party that everyday people can get excited about,' he said. 'That requires a changing of the guard.' (Reporting by James Oliphant and Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Americans split on Trump's use of military in immigration protests, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Americans are divided over President Donald Trump's decision to activate the military to respond to protests against his crackdown on migrants, with about half supportive of the move, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday. Some 48% of respondents in the two-day poll agreed with a statement that the president should "deploy the military to bring order to the streets" when protests turn violent, while 41% disagreed. Views on the matter split sharply along partisan lines, with members of Trump's Republican Party overwhelmingly backing the idea of calling in troops while Democrats were firmly opposed. At the same time, just 35% of respondents said they approved of Trump's response to the protests in Los Angeles, which has included sending National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to the city and also threatening to arrest Democratic officials, including the governor of California. Some 50% of people in the poll said they disapproved of Trump's response. Trump has argued the military deployment in Los Angeles was needed due to protests there following a series of immigration raids in the city. Some of the demonstrations in Los Angeles have turned violent - leaving burned out cars on city streets - and 46% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said protesters opposing Trump's immigration policies had gone too far, compared to 38% who disagreed with that view. The protests have spread to other U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, Washington and San Antonio, Texas - all of which have large immigrant populations and tend to vote for Democrats rather than Republicans. Trump campaigned and won last year's election on a promise to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants and Reuters/Ipsos polls have shown that his support on immigration policy has been consistently higher than on other matters, such as his stewardship of the U.S. economy. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which surveyed 1,136 Americans nationwide and has a margin of error of about 3 percentage points, showed wide support for increased deportations. Some 52% of respondents - including one in five Democrats and nine in 10 Republicans - backed ramping up deportations of people in the country illegally. Still, 49% of people in the poll said Trump had gone too far with his arrests of immigrants, compared to 40% who said he had not done so. The most heated protests have taken place in Los Angeles County, where one in three residents are immigrants and about half of people born abroad are naturalized U.S. citizens, according to U.S. Census estimates. Nationwide, Americans took a generally dim view of Trump's threats to arrest Democratic officials like California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. Just 35% of respondents said Trump should order arrests of state and local officials who try to stop federal immigration enforcement.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's approval rating ticks lower, economic concerns weigh, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's approval rating ticked slightly lower this week to 42%, matching the lowest level of his new term as Americans kept a dour view of his handling of the U.S. economy, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The results of the three-day poll, which concluded on Sunday, showed a marginal dip from a week earlier when a Reuters/Ipsos survey showed 44% of Americans approved of the job Trump was doing as president. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. While low by historical standards, Trump's popularity remains higher than it was for much of his first term as president and is also stronger than what his Democrat predecessor Joe Biden had during the second half of his 2021-2025 term. Trump's high point remains his 47% rating in the hours after his return to the White House in January. His approval has shown little movement in recent weeks. Just 39% of respondents in the poll said Trump was doing a good job managing the U.S. economy, unchanged from a week earlier. Trump won the 2024 presidential election on a promise to bring about a golden age for the U.S. economy, but his aggressive measures to reshape global commerce - including levying heavy tariffs on major trading partners - have increased the risks of recession, economists say. Inflation rates in the United States soared under Biden but have been trending lower for several years. Some 33% of respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll gave Trump a thumbs up on how he was managing the cost of living, up from 31% a week earlier. Many economists, however, expect inflation will heat back up as tariffs put pressure on the profits of importers. Trump on Saturday urged Walmart, the world's largest retailer, to "eat the tariffs" instead of blaming them for the retailer's increased prices. He has urged the country's independent central bank, the Federal Reserve, to lower interest rates, but central bankers have also expressed worry over the prospects of higher inflation. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, carried out online and nationwide, surveyed 1,024 U.S. adults May 16-18.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Americans worry about Trump's handling of current measles outbreak, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
By Jason Lange and Julie Steenhuysen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans worry about President Donald Trump's administration's ability to contain an ongoing outbreak of measles, while the vast majority of them believe that vaccines for the disease are safe, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Just 31% of respondents in the two-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, agreed with a statement that the current administration is handling the measles outbreak responsibly, while 40% disagreed and the rest were unsure or did not answer the question. The U.S. is currently facing its largest single outbreak of measles in 25 years, with the number of cases crossing the 1,000 mark last week. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine prevents 97% of cases after two doses and high adoption of the MMR vaccine resulted in the disease being declared eliminated in 2000 by the World Health Organization. Nonetheless, vaccination rates among U.S. children have fallen in recent years, which experts attribute to vaccine skepticism and misinformation. The vast majority of Americans still see the MMR vaccine as safe. Some 86% of respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said it was safe for children, a marginally higher share than the 84% who said the same in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May 2020, in the early months of the COVID pandemic. Some 13% of respondents in the latest poll said the vaccine was not safe for kids, up marginally from 10% five years earlier. The latest poll, which surveyed 1,163 U.S. adults nationwide, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Infectious disease experts worry that comments from vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services who has offered mixed messages about the severity of the disease and the safety and efficacy of vaccine, may further exacerbate vaccine hesitancy. Dr. Sean O'Leary, chair of the Infectious Diseases Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said he was encouraged by the high level of confidence in the MMR vaccine given the messaging from the Trump administration. "I do feel a bit better knowing that the public is recognizing that a lot of the information they're seeing right now from the administration is not accurate," O'Leary said. Kennedy, who became the nation's top health official in February, says he is not opposed to vaccines, which he says are the best way to prevent measles. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DUTY TO VACCINATE CHILDREN Some 76% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll - including majorities of both Republicans and Democrats - agreed with a statement that it was the duty of all parents to vaccinate their children against measles. One in four Republicans, however, disagreed. Vaccination rates have been declining in the U.S. In the 2019-2020 school year, 95.2% of kindergarteners nationwide completed their two-dose MMR vaccine series, above the 95% threshold needed to protect unvaccinated individuals against the highly contagious disease through herd immunity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles vaccination rates dropped to 92.7% in 2023-2024, according to the CDC. Within states, pockets of unvaccinated populations have even lower vaccination rates. In Gaines County, Texas, the epicenter of an outbreak that has infected more than 700 people and killed two unvaccinated children, only 82% of kindergarteners are fully vaccinated. The Texas outbreak has spread to Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, where one adult died from the disease. Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said most Americans are comfortable with the MMR vaccine, which is reflected in high vaccination rates. The problem, he said, is that national vaccination numbers can mask pockets of very low vaccination coverage. "You really have to look at these pockets," Adalja said. "That's what makes us very vulnerable." Some 55% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were concerned about measles outbreaks - on par with the number who worried about being laid off from their jobs and well below the 80% who worried about rising inflation. Just 32% of respondents in the poll said they thought the current administration would stop the current outbreak and prevent measles from becoming a common illness again.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's approval steady, concerns over economy, immigration rise, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's approval rating held steady this week, but discontent is rising over his handling of the economy and hardline approach to immigration, amid concern about a global trade war and a push to increase deportations, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The three-day poll completed on Sunday showed 42% of respondents approved of the Republican leader's performance in office, unchanged from a prior Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted a week earlier. The share of people who disapprove of his presidency was also steady at 53%. The share of respondents who approve of Trump's economic stewardship declined a percentage point to 36%, the lowest level in his current term or in his 2017-2021 presidency, while disapproval rose 5 points to 56%. Fears of a recession have surged in recent weeks as Trump has launched a global trade war, hiking tariffs so high that economists warn that trade with some countries - notably China - could grind nearly to a halt. The moves have shaken investors and companies. On Tuesday, for example, delivery giant United Parcel Service said it would cut 20,000 jobs. Inflation continued to be a sore spot. Trump's victory in the November presidential election came after inflation accelerated under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. But the pace of inflation has barely eased under Trump and 59% of respondents to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll disapproved of his handling of the cost of living in America, compared with 32% who approved. Trump gets higher marks on his performance on immigration than on any other issue Reuters/Ipsos polled on, with 45% of respondents approving his handling of it, steady with the prior finding. But discontent also grew here, with his disapproval rating on the topic ticking 2 points higher to 48%. Trump launched an aggressive enforcement campaign after taking office on January 20, sending troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Democrats and civil rights advocates have criticized Trump's heightened enforcement tactics, including the cases of several children who are U.S. citizens who were recently deported with their parents. One of the children has a rare form of cancer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Some 11% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said immigration was the most important problem facing the United States, compared to 14% in late January. The share who said the economy was the top concern in the latest poll was little changed at 22%. The share who said the biggest problem was political extremism and threats to democracy stood at 26%, up from 20% in late January. The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,029 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.
