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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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CNN's chief data analyst said the Democratic Party's approval rating had declined and that pollsters had "never found" congressional Democrats "in worse shape."
The Democratic Party's approval rating is "lower than the Dead Sea," Harry Enten has said.
Newsweek reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment outside of normal business hours.
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Why It Matters
Maintaining a strong approval rating will be of utmost importance to the party as it heads toward the midterm elections. The GOP has a slim majority of 219 to 214 in the House of Representatives and holds a 53-47 majority in the Senate so Democrats are looking to pick up key seats and gain control of Congress.
Traditionally, the party that does not hold the White House tends to do better in midterm elections. In 2018, Republicans lost the House and the Democrats gained 41 seats.
What To Know
Speaking on CNN Thursday, Enten said: "Democrats in the minds of the American public are lower than the Dead Sea right."
Using polling data from Quinnipiac University, he added that the net approval rating for Democrats in Congress was -55 percentage points overall and -61 points with independents.
Quinnipiac University has "never found Democrats, at least those in Congress, in worse shape than they are right now," he said.
Enten added that Independents were "driving" the low approval rating but said that the party's approval rating among Democrats themselves was -6 points, a decline of 28 percentage points from October when it stood at +22 points.
Despite the negative polling, Democrats recently won in a series of elections on November 4, including in the New York City mayoral election, in which Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Shanahan who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K. said: "Democrats can look to their successes in November where strong campaigns from the likes of Zohran Mamdani in New York and Abigail Spanberger [Virginia governor-elect], with strong candidates and locally focused campaigns delivered excellent results. They will hope that using that template across the nation will deliver an uptick in their polling as the elections near. If not, the midterms could be a contest to emerge as the least-worst alternative for voters."
The Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters found that 18 percent approved of the way the Democrats in Congress were handling their job—73 percent disapproved, which according to the pollster is a record low job approval rating for them.
The poll surveyed 1,035 self-identified registered voters nationwide from December 11-15, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
Enten said Democrats could still take back Congress after the midterm elections but said the polling was "definitely hurting them."
Still, the poll found 47 percent of voters said they would want to see Democrats win control of the House if the election were held at the time of the survey, compared with 43 percent who would want to see the Republican Party win control.
What People Are Saying
Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Shanahan who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K. said: "This is all pointing to the 2026 midterms as being the battle of two unpopular parties—an echo of the Trump v. Biden race that never reached the finish line in 2024. The Democrats still haven't recovered from the shellacking they received from voters last year and have struggled to emerge from the shadow of Republican triumphalism with the clarity of policy and leadership necessary to give momentum to any semblance of Blue Wave in an election season that traditionally should go well for them."
Conservative American commentator Benny Johnson wrote on X: "Holy smokes it's so over. CNN just dropped devastating news for Democrats.
RNC Research wrote on X: "Polling shows even Democrats hate Democrats!"
What Happens Next
Over the weeks and months to come, the party's approval rating will likely fluctuate and will be tested in earnest when voters head to the midterms in November 2026.
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