The Democratic Party is continuing to lose support among one of its key voter blocs, young people, according to a new survey.
Brett Cooper, who hosts “The Brett Cooper Show,” believes that many people of her generation believe that the Democrat Party no longer reflects their values.
“Democrats are completely out of touch with their voter base,” she said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” “They are aging out. We do not want them in Congress anymore on the left and the right.”
She highlighted the aging Senators and representatives, including Sen. Dick Durbin who announced his retirement last week, as examples.
“You see members of Congress like Dick [Durbin] who are so old,” she said. “Young people feel unrepresented, and they are fed up.”
She believes the Democrats are in a no-win situation as a tug-of-war unfolds between those on the radical left and those in the center.
“If they don’t like Donald Trump, then they’re angry that their representatives are not pushing back enough. If they are more common sense in the center, they’re angry with how radical they’ve gotten. They just feel completely left alone,” the host said.
A poll that was just released by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics backs her claims.
The poll showed that approval of congressional Democrats among young voters cratered to 23 percent, down from 42 percent in early 2017.
Republicans do slightly better with an approval of 29 percent, which is higher than in recent years among a demographic that does not traditionally vote Republican.
President Donald Trump’s approval rating in the poll is at 31 percent, which is a virtual tie with his rating during his first term.
Cooper believes that someone like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have a chance with new voters.
“I think that they are going to have to change course. We will see if that works,” Cooper said. “We’ll see if AOC resonates with as many people as they’re hoping.”
“It is obviously an emotional issue, and they know that in order to reach Gen Z, I mean, historically, in the past, it has been through emotion, which is why you’re seeing these selfie videos, these rallying cries,” she said.
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“The tactics that they have been able to use in the past to reach my generation, through social media, using big, broad, emotionally charged language, that might not work,” she said. “They need to listen to their voters for once and actually see how they’re responding.”
If the Democrats are looking for new leadership, polls show that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez may be the one they look to.
A survey by Data for Progress indicates that the left-wing New Yorker is ahead of Schumer by 19 points in a hypothetical 2028 Democratic primary contest. Although Schumer still retains his title as leader of his party in the upper chamber, his popularity among the party’s base appears to be rapidly declining.
Between March 26 and 31, 767 likely Democratic primary voters in New York were asked whom they would support in a hypothetical primary matchup between Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez. The results were striking: 55% backed Ocasio-Cortez, while only 36% chose Schumer.
The findings were not anomalies. The poll revealed that Schumer had the highest disapproval rating among all Democratic figures tested, whereas Ocasio-Cortez ranked among the most popular, trailing only Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
The decline comes at a politically perilous moment. Schumer recently joined Senate Republicans in supporting a spending bill negotiated with President Trump, drawing sharp criticism from progressives who argue that Democrats should take a more aggressive stance against the president’s mounting political influence.
A staggering 84% of respondents also said they believe that Washington Democrats aren’t doing enough to stand up to Trump and the MAGA movement—a sentiment that serves as a full-blown alarm bell.