On Saturday, Granite State Democrats overlooked a decade of State House losses and reelected Ray Buckley to another two-year term as chairman.
The next day, two new polls dropped showing the Democratic Party’s favorability at an all-time low with the American people.
A new CNN poll reported that just 29 percent of those surveyed have a favorable view of the party of Sens. Chuck Schumer and Jeanne Shaheen, while 54 percent have an unfavorable opinion.
And a new NBC News poll is even worse: Just 27 percent of registered voters view the Democratic Party positively. While 55 percent have a negative view, the 38 percent “very negative” number is the highest since at least 2010.
“With these numbers, the Democratic Party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted,” Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates told NBC News.
In New Hampshire, it’s Democrats who are cranky about the current state of their party.
A St. Anselm College Survey Center poll released last week found just 29 percent of Granite State Democrats are happy with the direction of their party. That compares to 91 percent of Republicans who are happy with the direction of the GOP.
One reason Democrats are mad is that they want their elected officials to fight President Donald Trump, not find common ground. In the CNN poll, 57 percent of Democrats said they want the priority to be stopping the GOP agenda, while just 42 percent want elected Democrats to work across the aisle.
The same in the NBC poll, where 65 percent of Democrats said they want party members in Congress to reject bipartisanship and wage political war against Trump and the GOP.
On Friday, both New Hampshire U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Shaheen broke with their party to vote for the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded and avoid a shutdown.
Progressive Democrats expressed their outrage.
“The terrible CR Budget bill — written by right-wing House Republicans with no input from anybody but themselves — was passed tonight with the support of 10 Democrats,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on X. “An absolute failure of Democratic leadership. NOBODY in the Senate should have voted for this dangerous bill.”
New Hampshire Democratic state Rep. Alissandra Murray retweeted Sanders’ message.
UNH professor Dante Scala said on WMUR Sunday that the energy in the Democratic Party’s leftwing base is clearly on display. The question is whether a progressive candidate will seize the opportunity.
“I think back to Carol Shea-Porter in 2006, when this unknown person from the grassroots was able to harness the lightning of the anti-Iraq war movement and show up in a primary where she blew the establishment candidate out of the water,” Scala said.
Both U.S. Reps. Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas voted against the CR and in favor of a government shutdown.
New Hampshire Democrats have close to a lock on federal races, due in large part to the unpopularity of the Republican brand among New England voters. At the state level, however, the story has been very different since 2016. But Granite State Democrats voted to stay the course this weekend, re-electing Buckley and
Buckley’s struggles — losing five governor’s races in a row and losing the state legislature and Executive Council in four of the past five cycles — are well-known. In fact, leaders across the state circulated a memo expressing their concerns over Buckley’s failure to turn the party’s advantages in money, organization, and Democrat-friendly geography (deep-blue New England) into state-level victories.
But Democrats are also thus far unwilling to change direction on policies. For example, polls consistently show Democrats are underwater by 20 points or more on illegal immigration and allowing biological males into female sports. And yet they continue to stand by those policies, voting in favor of sanctuary cities and against girls-only locker rooms and private spaces.
Granite State Republicans, who launched a mock “Republicans for Ray” website last week promoting Buckley’s reelection, celebrated the news, calling it “another electoral victory” for the GOP.
“Congrats, Ray!”
