You’ve heard it over and over again from establishment, hand-wringing Democrats: ‘The Democratic brand stinks.’ What follows is often a rant about how the left is making life difficult for centrists to win, which is a tip the “analysis” about the party’s reputation might be tainted by sectarian self-interest. That is actually just wrong — and politically dumb.
For starters, it’s a mindset trapped in 2024 when, let’s face it, Vice President Kamala Harris (or the Biden presidency, if you prefer) was a drag on the party around the country across multiple demographic groups, resulting in a Republican trifecta victory. (When you see how far above that floor that Democrats are now running, you can see the magnitude of the 2024 campaign’s failure.) But that was almost two years ago. Democrats’ “brand” is not where it was then.
“When asked which political party they think is more in touch with the concerns of most people in the United States, 46 percent of voters think the Democratic Party, 35 percent think the Republican Party, and 13 percent volunteer that there is no difference,” Quinnipiac pollsters found.
Meanwhile, party identification has soared, rising to a 10-point advantage. “As recently as 2024, Republicans and Independents who lean toward the Republican Party held a slight edge over Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents,” the New York Times reported. However, Democrats now are situated similarly to where they were in “the final quarter of the 2018 midterm cycle, when nearly 49 percent of Americans identified as Democrats. That year, the Democratic Party gained more than 40 seats in the House.” Don’t expect that many House seat pickups, thanks to MAGA re-redistricting, but the shifts in Democrats’ favor have nevertheless been enormous, especially among Hispanics and young voters. In contrast to 2024, when Republicans had a 1-point advantage with young voters, Democrats now lead by 16 points, while Democrats’ edge with Hispanics “has increased by nine percentage points over the same period.”
For a supposedly cruddy “brand,” Democrats are doing fairly well. Since 2024, Democrats have actually surged, overperforming in state races, special elections, and primary turnout. And the midterm map continues to expand for Democrats.
The brand grousers will come back and say: Yeah, but Democrats have to keep defending themselves against accusations that they are communists, obsessed with transgender Americans, or are weak on border security. Really?! Waiting for Republicans to stop making baseless accusations or for legacy media to stop parroting those claims is a fool’s errand. Politics in an era of a Republican Party unbound by truth or decency necessitates confronting daily the propaganda and hysteria generated by a MAGA cult for whom demonization, dehumanization, and distortion are second nature. The best campaigners (e.g., Pete Buttigieg, Texas Senate nominee James Talarico, or Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff) dispense with specious arguments and strategically pivot to attack Republicans as corrupt puppets of foreign actors and proponents of crony capitalism, not free markets — among other assaults on our democracy.
Underlying brand agonizing is a fundamental misunderstanding about politics and public opinion. The American public is cynical and habitually ill-disposed toward politicians. Nearly 90 percent of voters believe they are all corrupt. One could debate how much of that is deserved — though multiple fruitless forever wars, economic crises, and widening income inequality suggest their stance is not unfounded — or argue that Democrats have taken too long to go on offense on reform (they have). However, expecting voters to express undiluted confidence in their party is unrealistic, to put it mildly.
The danger in perpetuating the “brand stinks” whining is two-fold. First and foremost, worries about offense perpetuate the milquetoast politics that voters plainly are not in the mood to hear. If the primary season has revealed anything, it is that forceful rhetoric directed at a corrupt oligarchy, billionaire donors, and a two-tiered system of justice — rather than mushy moderation — is what drives voters’ support. Fiery denunciation of ICE excesses has been embraced by the voters, for example, not mealy-mouthed calls for restraint — or worse, the inclination to avoid immigration as an issue altogether.) Voters want decisive change — dramatic, fundamental, and systemic change.
Second, the “brand stinks” mantra has become a precursor to untimely and ill-conceived internecine war against the party’s more left-leaning members. There will be plenty of time to debate the agenda should Democrats capture majorities in one or both houses. An entire 2028 presidential campaign awaits, in which strongly held views on the direction of the party can be hashed out. But to spend a nanosecond bemoaning the views of a socialist in a New York City congressional district (or of a fringe influencer whom the vast majority of voters have never heard of) is political malpractice. With less than seven weeks until Election Day (and far less before early voting rolls out around the country), whimpering that one segment of the party is making it harder for others to win (when there is zero evidence that is the case) is a gift to Republicans looking to make the election about anything but their own dismal record.
The bottom line: There has been a sea change in the political environment since 2024, in large part because MAGA Republicans have shown their true colors: their disregard for ordinary voters, their frightful extremism, and their deeply corrupt core. They, not Democrats, have the severe “brand” problem. Democrats’ best chance for maximizing victory rests with making sure voters understand that contrast.
Democratic candidates up and down the ticket would do well to follow the examples of success over the past two years: go on offense against Republican corruption and reverse Robin Hood economics, denounce billionaire elites who rig the system in their favor, and definitely join Trump’s call in asking voters to “pretend” he is on the ballot. In fact, for all practical purposes, Trump is on the ballot, and only through a rout of his Republican enablers will the disastrous policies and corruption free-for-all come to an end. That is a brand that voters can get behind.
