Democrats have been touting their victories in Tuesday’s elections as a sign that the party is finally back.
After getting their derrieres handed to them in 2024, they seem to think they have regained their footing and are ready to make a Rocky Balboa-style comeback. But, methinks it is still too early for them to be spiking the football.
A new poll from Politico shows what many of us already know: The Democrats are still leaderless. The party has no real guiding figure to focus its messaging and cast a vision for the future, which isn’t exactly a favorable position to be in heading into the midterm elections.
Harris, the former vice president, was the highest person on the list and the only one in double-digits. But she was still named as the party leader by only 16 percent of the people who voted for her last year — a relatively small number given she is the party’s most recent presidential nominee, has made headlines with her book promotion and is considered a potential 2028 contender.
The rest of the top choices spanned an array of party stalwarts, including congressional leaders and former presidents. Few of them are widely considered to be among the 2028 contenders except Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was named by just 6 percent of Harris 2024 voters as the current party leader.
“This is where we are, guys,” said Lauren Harper Pope, a Democratic strategist and co-founder of WelcomePAC, which supports center-left candidates.
The party is divided “factionally and ideologically,” she said: “I couldn’t tell you who the leader of the Democratic Party is, either, and I work in Democratic politics.”
This is entirely normal for a party that does not control the House, Senate, or White House. It means that right now there simply is no leader of the Democratic Party. From @politico: 'We polled Dems on who their leader is. They had no idea.' https://t.co/ktdXxdaw7q pic.twitter.com/I8NV6iWvGQ
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 7, 2025
And that, dear reader, is the crux of the matter. If Democratic voters have no idea who their leader is, then the party remains rudderless. Sure, they might be able to win elections in blue states, as they did on Tuesday, but this does not mean they are ready for primetime just yet.
Republicans have President Donald Trump at the wheel at the moment. On top of that, they also have other leaders, such as Vice President JD Vance and others who could possibly pick up the torch after Trump’s second term is over.
Lanae Erickson, vice president of a Democratic think tank, told Politico she believes the party is “getting our footing back,” but that this newfound momentum hasn’t “translated to people seeing clearly who they think is pointing the direction of the party.”
🚨62% of Democrats want new party leadership. CNN confronted Hakeem Jeffries and he brushed it off.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) September 22, 2025
The arrogance is wild. You’re polling worse than Biden and think “we keep winning” is an answer? pic.twitter.com/wM2zlIZGWS
A recent AP-NORC poll reveals some concerning attitudes toward the Democratic Party among its core supporters. Many view the party as “weak” or “ineffective.”
The survey found that almost one-third of Democrats had negative opinions of their party. Only about two in ten respondents used positive terms to describe it. One respondent said the party is “spineless,” while another said, “I just feel like there’s so much recently that’s just going abhorrently wrong” and that Democrats “speak up a little bit and they roll right over.”
The Democrats are still trying to figure out who they are and how they might regain relevance. Some experts have suggested left-leaning politicians might adopt more conservative or centrist positions on issues like immigration and trade to appeal to a wider swath of voters.
Some on the left have finally realized that their incessant caterwauling about transgender issues and other forms of identity politics are alienating a base that is more concerned about putting food on the table than making sure they get someone's pronouns right.
If historical tradition holds, the Democrats might at least win back the House in 2026. But these are uncertain times. Even if they manage to pull this off, they still have a long way to go before regaining the level of power they had under President Joe Biden. The fact that they still do not have a leader does not portend anything positive for the future of the party.
