Democrats are less optimistic about their party’s future than at any point in past 8 years, new Pew poll shows

In the aftermath of the 2024 elections, Democrats are less optimistic about their party’s future than they’ve been at any point in the past eight years, according to new Pew Research Center polling released Friday.

The poll, which was conducted November 12-17, also finds that views of President-elect Donald Trump continue a pattern seen pre-election: Americans largely express confidence in his plans for the economy, while continuing to rate him negatively on many personal characteristics.

Roughly half (51%) of Democrats and independents who lean toward the party say they’re optimistic, while 49% say that they’re pessimistic about its future. Democratic pessimism is up compared with both 2016, when 38% said they were feeling that way in the wake of Trump’s first presidential victory, and in 2020, when 17% of Democratic-aligned adults described themselves as pessimistic after Joe Biden’s win in 2020. They also didn’t feel this pessimistic in the wake of the 2018 and 2022 midterms.

By contrast, 86% of Republican-aligned adults now call themselves optimistic about the GOP’s future, up from 65% who said the same two years ago. Roughly 8 in 10 said they were optimistic following Trump’s 2016 election and the 2018 midterms, with 74% calling themselves optimistic after Biden’s 2020 victory.

Read more about the polling here.