The past ten and a half months have not been easy on Democrats, with the party losing the popular vote for the first time in two decades, watching President Donald Trump actively secure the border, deport criminals, combat the radical left cultural agenda, and perform possibly the largest audit of the federal government in history. Over the past year, the Democratic Party has seen its popularity plummet, with Democratic identity reaching a new low in 2025. Conservativism is now the leading ideology in the nation, and nearly two-thirds of Americans reject liberalism. Between 2020 and 2024, the GOP added 2.4 million voters while Democrats parted ways with 2.1 million. Democrats have been trailing Republicans on the handling of major issues that will determine the midterm election outcome for months.
Thirteen months out from the midterm elections, a new survey is showing possibly the worst numbers the Democratic Party has seen all year on the handling of key issues like crime and immigration. The Democratic Party is even losing on issues it tends to hold an edge on, such as “fighting corruption” and gun control.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey, conducted Sep. 19-21 on 1,019 U.S. adults, shows Americans are deeply mistrustful of handing the reins over to the Democratic Party on key issues, with Americans saying by wide double-digits the GOP has a better plan to handle crime, immigration, and the economy.
Americans say by 20 points – 40 percent to 20 percent – Republicans have a better plan than Democrats to handle crime and say by 18 points – 40 percent to 22 percent – Republicans have a better plan than Democrats to handle immigration. In other words, only about one-in-five Americans say the Democratic Party has come up with a better plan than the GOP to tackle crime and the illegal immigrant crisis.
Americans also trust the GOP over the Democratic Party on foreign policy by twelve points – 35 percent to 23 percent – and on the economy by ten points – 34 percent to 24 percent.
While these numbers are bad enough for Democrats, they look even worse when compared to the way voters felt in the last midterm election cycle in 2022. As CNN data analyst Harry Enten warned Democrats last week, Americans trust Democrats significantly less now compared to the last midterm cycle. Ipsos polling from 2022 found Republicans ahead by three points on immigration, and the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows the GOP ahead by 18 points, a 15-point swing. On crime, Republicans were more trusted than Democrats by 13 points in 2022 and are now trusted more by 20 points.
The current Reuters/Ipsos poll even shows Democrats losing on two issues the party often capitalizes on, combatting “political extremism”, and gun control. Republicans are more trusted to handle political extremism by four points, 32 percent to 28 percent, according to the survey. The GOP is also more trusted on the second amendment by four points, 30 percent to 26 percent.
A recent New York Times/Siena College survey conducted Sep. 22-27 further underscores Democrats’ inability to regain voter trust, particularly on immigration. The survey finds that overall Americans believe President Trump is deporting the right kind of people – illegal aliens with a focus on those with criminal records. The survey found voters support the core of President Trump’s immigration policy with voters saying by ten points – 54 percent to 44 percent – they support deporting illegal immigrants. In addition, voters say by nine points – 51 percent to 42 percent – that the government is mostly deporting people who “should” be deported.
The Democratic Party – rather than offering workable policy solutions to persistent issues like the border crisis, rampant crime, unbalanced trade and foreign policy deals, and political extremism largely stemming form their own party – have staked their entire identity on opposing President Trump and conservatives. This is proving to be a grave miscalculation, because voters no longer trust Democrats to handle the most pressing policy issues. Instead, voters largely trust the party that is offering workable solutions and can demonstrate measurable progress toward a safer and more sovereign future.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
