Since their party's huge loss in November, Democrats in the House and the Senate have been counting down the days till the 2026 midterm elections present them the chance to swing control back in their favor. A new poll from Harvard's Institute of Politics makes it clear, though, that Democrats have a lot of ground to make up with the young Americans whose votes they'd need to flip either chamber.
The Harvard Youth Poll, released Wednesday, is filled with troubling statistics about how 18- to 29-year-olds feel about the state of the country broadly and politics in particular. Congressional Democrats should be especially worried at how few of those surveyed have positive views of their work. Only 23% of young Americans approve of congressional Democrats' job performance, and almost three times as many — 66% — disapprove. (The survey overall reported a margin of error of +/- 3.21%.)
Those numbers are even more dire relative to previous iterations of the Youth Poll. In spring 2017, during the opening days of the first Trump administration, 42% of those surveyed approved of what congressional Democrats were doing. That approval rating jumped to 48% in fall 2020, more than double where it stands today. (In the fall 2020 poll, 49% of those surveyed disapproved of the Democrats' job performance.)
Even worse for Democrats? Self-identified Democrats — not Republicans and independents — are dragging down Dems' approval ratings.
This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest article. Read the full column here.
