Politico reporting, in part:
“The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people’s challenges,” said Molly Murphy, one of the pollsters who worked on the research by Navigator, a project within the Hub Project, a Democratic nonprofit group. “Even though voters are critical about Trump and some of the things he’s doing, that criticism of Trump doesn’t translate into trust in Democrats. The trust has to be earned.”
Especially alarming for Democrats were findings around voters’ views of Democrats and work. Just 44 percent of those polled said they think Democrats respect work, while even fewer — 39 percent — said the party values work. Only 42 percent said Democrats share their values. A majority, meanwhile — 56 percent — said Democrats are not looking out for working people.
Only 39 percent believe Democrats have the right priorities.
“We’ve always had the stigma of being the ‘welfare party,’ but I do think this is related to a post-Covid feeling that we don’t care about people working, and we’ve had a very long hangover from that, which feels really, really consequential,” Murphy said. “How can you care about working people if you don’t care about work? It’s going to be really hard in the midterms if voters don’t think we care about work.”
Republicans, too, face their own branding problems, according to the survey, with 54 percent of voters saying they view Republicans in Congress unfavorably. Only about a third of voters said they approve of the GOP’s handling of the economy.
So, while Republicans are vulnerable, Politico goes on -
But Democrats’ difficulties appear to go deeper. For example, the poll found a whopping 69 percent of voters said Democrats were “too focused on being politically correct.” Another 51 percent said “elitist” described the Democratic Party well.
[...] Just 38 percent of voters believe that Democrats’ policies prioritize the middle and working class, while 35 percent believe they primarily benefit the wealthy. Another 18 percent said they’re geared toward the poor. Republicans, too, had only 38 percent of voters who said GOP’s policies were focused on the middle and working class, while 56 percent said they were focused on the wealthy.
Well, credit the polled folks with seeing the truth - that both parties are owned by money, to the tune of 38% each noting that; with the wonder being neither party scored higher, and both are the same.
Slotkin's rebuttal of Trump was no help. The Ball Park Franks heiress was dismissive of showing any real care, and talked up her talking points mechanically while taking time to say she was an ex-spook.
Bernie's been touring to large crowds, showing a true empathy and understanding, in talking of Medicare for All - a point Slotkin studiously ignored because Jeffries hates the idea and Schumer features other priorities.
That trifecta is more than sufficient to lose the 2026 midterms, while attention and love has been shown toward Bernie's saying if you want to win you have to sincerely advocate what the people want.
Strange, Bernie's message goes unheard by Schumer and Slotkin, and hated by Jeffries. Jeffries is actively opposed to progressive messaging, while having a safe district for himself and for his future.
What a bunch of flat learning curves shown by internal polling.
_____________UPDATE_____________
Seattle Times carrying an AP item:
Text of that item, in part -
WARREN, Mich. (AP) — Bernie Sanders is standing alone on the back of a pickup truck shouting into a bullhorn.
He’s facing several hundred ecstatic voters huddled outside a suburban Detroit high school — the group that did not fit inside the high school’s gym or two overflow rooms. The crowd screams in delight when he tells them that a combined total of 9,000 people had shown up for the rally.
[...] In tearing into Trump’s seizure of power and warning about the consequences of firing tens of thousands of government workers, Sanders is bucking the wishes of those who want Democrats to focus on the price of eggs or “roll over and play dead.”
For now, at least, Sanders stands alone as the only elected progressive willing to mount a national campaign to harness the fear and anger of the sprawling anti-Trump movement.
He drew a crowd of 4,000 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Friday night. He faced another 2,600 or so the next morning a few hours away in Altoona, Wisconsin, a town of less than 10,000 residents. And his crowd of 9,000 in suburban Detroit exceeded his own team’s expectations. By design, each stop was in a swing U.S. House district represented by a Republican.
Sanders, who was just elected to his fourth Senate term from Vermont, conceded that this is not the role he expected to play at this stage of his career.
[...] Since losing the White House, Democrats across Washington have struggled to coalesce behind a consistent message or messenger to stop Trump’s aggressive moves to slash the government workforce, weaken federal oversight and empower tech titan Elon Musk to execute his vision.
There has been no centralized movement to organize the anti-Trump resistance.
“You look around — who else is doing it? No one,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said of Sanders’ efforts. “My hope is that the dam will break in terms of Democrats going on the offense … We need to take the argument directly to the people.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a longtime Sanders ally, said she would join him on the road in the coming weeks. She’s also planning solo appearances in Republican-held congressional districts in Pennsylvania and New York — and perhaps others in places where Republicans have declined to hold in-person town halls where they might face protests.
[...] During last month’s congressional recess, Jeffries made two appearances to promote a children’s book about democracy. He has also traveled to support House Democrats. This past weekend, he was in Selma, Alabama, to mark the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
[...] United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, who introduced Sanders in Michigan, said more Democrats need to “follow his lead to focus on working-class people and working-class issues.”
“They’ve got to take a hard look in the mirror, in my opinion, and decide who the hell they want to represent,” Fain said of Democrats.
Well. How about that.