What Voters Want to See from Democrats
Two new surveys break down what Americans are looking for in prospective candidates.
Democrats are feeling quite good about themselves coming out of this month’s big elections. They won races up and down the ballot in cities and states across the country, leading some to believe they’ve gotten their mojo back after last year’s devastating loss to Donald Trump. As I wrote last week, they certainly have reason to celebrate these wins.
But a bigger test is coming up in next year’s midterms—specifically, in their bid to retake the U.S. Senate—and the real fight for the party’s future lurks just beyond that in the 2028 presidential primary. As Democrats begin to contemplate what their party will look like in both the last two years of Trump’s presidency and the post-Trump era, they’re facing big questions, including who they will represent, how they can compete in parts of the country that have spent at least a decade trending away from them, and just how big their tent should be.
We got our first glimpse of the answers to some of those questions in this month’s elections, as voters embraced candidates of wildly different ideological persuasions. However, most of these wins came in states or cities that lean Democratic to varying degrees. Each of the next two national elections will require Democrats to field candidates capable of competing in places that vote to the right of the country.
While it’s tough to predict whom Democratic voters will nominate in next year’s hard-to-win contests, let alone for president in 2028, two recent studies offer some early evidence of what voters want to see from the party’s candidates.
The first is a massive survey from Echelon Insights1, a Republican-aligned polling outfit, which asked respondents who said they were not committed to voting Democratic in next year’s midterms what might make them change their minds. Specifically, Echelon gauged whether a Democratic candidate adopting certain positions on high-profile issues would make these respondents more or less likely to support them.
A majority of respondents pointed to four items that they say would make them more open to supporting a Democrat, including a greater focus on working-class economic issues, standing against corporate power, fewer culture war fights, and an openness to bipartisanship. These findings were consistent across demographic groups, including with a majority of non-college voters, working-class voters, rural voters, and even Trump voters. Meanwhile, the positions least likely to change minds? Strong support for Israel, support for fracking, and opposition to abortion.
Again, these are voters who are not already “definitely” planning to vote Democratic in the 2026 midterms but whose support might help push the party’s candidates over the finish line in competitive races. Many of them are looking for candidates who lean left on economic issues and tack toward the center on social matters—who look out for voters’ material needs without getting sucked into fights they don’t believe impact their day-to-day lives.
More recently, the Democratic-aligned group Blueprint published the results of their own, similar survey, which polled Democratic and independent voters to gauge what they want to see in the party’s candidates across three different dimensions: personal biography, political record, and issue focus. Here’s how they describe the it:
Using a “Mad Libs” style conjoint test, we presented dozens of potential bio facts, records, and issue priorities to understand what meaningfully moves a “generic Democrat’s” favorability. The result is a map of the traits, life choices, and policy focuses that voters reward—and the ones that sink them from the starting gate.
In essence, Blueprint wanted to know, if these voters were to build their ideal Democratic candidate, what would he or she look like—and what traits would the voters value or prioritize over others? As it turns out, despite being on the opposite side of the aisle, their results paint a strikingly similar picture to Echelon’s.
On the whole, voters prioritize candidates who are middle- or at least working-class, blue-collar workers or small-business owners, ideologically moderate and committed to bipartisanship, and focused on pocketbook issues over culture war fights. The traits that were least sought-after? Affiliation with socialism, having served in the Biden administration, hosting a podcast, wealth, and a focus on hot-button social topics.
Blueprint described what the “perfect mad libs Democrat” would look like:
This Democrat is a working-class veteran who has spent their career guided by science, evidence, and facts, created jobs in the private sector, and believes in finding common ground. They’re running on protecting Social Security and Medicare, bringing down the prices of food and goods, and making healthcare more affordable.
Though there were some differences in how Democrats and independents prioritized certain traits—Democrats, for example, were far likelier than independents to prioritize “fighting Trump’s authoritarianism”—the most and least effective ones were generally shared by both.
Of course, Democrats can’t create the perfect candidates in a lab. However, both surveys offer the party a good look at what many voters—especially middle-of-the-road voters—want to see from them. Though longtime TLP readers may not be very surprised by these results, the survey findings nonetheless continue to serve as useful guidance for a party trying to find its way back to power.
To have a chance of winning a Senate majority in 2026 and the presidency in 2028, Democrats will need to find candidates capable of winning in places that lean to the right of the nation as a whole—sometimes by quite a bit. This necessitates accepting candidates into the “big tent” who may deviate from base Democrats on some issues but are good fits for their states’ electorates and willing to meet voters where they are.
We highlighted Echelon’s political tribes quiz in our latest weekend edition.
Another terrific article from TLP.
A couple of observations. One is that in the "issue focus" column there is a massive contradiction. People want cheaper stuff, but also want to reduce the Federal Debt. Clearly, all attempts to do one will make it so you can't do the other.
Case in point: The Democratic shut-down. What Democrats were wanting was massively more money poured into giving people money to soften healthcare costs. Never did a Democrat advocating this talk about what that policy would do to the National Debt, which currently stands at 38 Trillion. The idea of "taxing the rich more" isn't a bad idea, but there is not enough money there. And to make healthcare socialist (i.e., government run) ignores the incredible number of new medical procedures that are being and have been developed to treat illnesses better......based upon a Capitalist, money-driven idea.
A position of ours, and the major reason we switched from voting for Democrats for 50 years to either sitting out elections or voting Republicans is that there is no real Democratic Party any longer. Instead, it is ruled by Progressives who, if you don't 100% toe the line, will go after you with both fists flying.
Progressives are the same people who look down on Trump voters and Republican voters. They are the ones who constantly criticize white people, men, police officers, baby boomers, and financially successful people.
In short, Progressives are not aligned with our values in terms of respecting the dignity of all people, especially maybe those who you disagree with.
We believe that it is these psychological factors that actually determine elections, not issues as listed in the surveys. People want to belong with other people, and Progressives make it clear that unless you agree with them about how bad you are, then you are not worthy of being in their tribe.
And to date, we have seen NO progressives admit to how awful they are about other people.
So, we are Independents. Liberals. Able to see the validity of issues favored by both sides. And take all peoples' issues seriously.
p.s. and as my wife says, "you know you are a liberal, like us, when everyone hates you."
We want a Democrat who respects everyone. Period.
Solid, or certain Democratic voters pick the primary winners, and truly independent voters pick the winners in November.
Those numbers would be nice to see.