Democrats are grappling with a young electorate that's disaffected with both parties.

[Celerity]

https://www.notus.org/democrats/young-americans-study-harvard

Most Americans under the age of 30 don’t approve of President Donald Trump or either party in Congress, according to a new poll released Wednesday. But Democratic officials and strategists told NOTUS they believe the party can win over disengaged young people.

A poll of 18- to 29-year-olds released Wednesday by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School found that only 15% of respondents believed the country was headed in the right direction, with less than 30% approving of the president or either party in Congress.

The poll, known as the Harvard Youth Poll, also found that congressional Democrats’ approval rating has halved (from 42% in 2017 to 23% this year), while support for congressional Republicans has hovered around 29%.

The survey shows just how much Democrats need to do to win over the young people they lost to President Donald Trump and those who skipped voting entirely. Democratic operatives say the party is working on its messaging to better appeal to people under 30.

snip


https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/50th-edition-spring-2025

[Chemical Bill]

1. Democrats are grappling with...

Right wing nut media all over the Internet. It's funny how ultra rich people with money can buy voters.

[womanofthehills]

4. A big part according to YouGov is the genocide in Gaza

The kids are watching genocide in real time on their phones and are horrified as the dead children images never end - in fact, they are increasingly as Israel bombs the tents they are sleeping in. Today’s images of about 30 dead children included two beautiful twin girls about 5 yrs old in matching outfits dead lying next to each other and a three yr old boy clutching his dead mother. Did Israel forget the whole world has phones????

So proud of my NM reps because they were part of the 15 Dems who voted to stop sending bombs to Israel.

[NoRethugFriends]

5. Your answer to everything

Yes it's horrendous, and that's not the reason.

[RJ-MacReady]

23. gaza

Is much of an issue to most people. At least not voting wise.

[Tarzanrock]

2. Let them go "hungry" for a month ...

... really "hungry" like having to stand in long lines for Food Stamps -- and we will see how soon they become politically active the the Democrats.

[Chasstev365]

3. Giving Ultimatums to David Hogg

Is not good way to reach out.

[Keepthesoulalive]

7. David Hogg

Seems to be nice but I need to hear who and how he is going to primary people. If you don’t like the direction of the party get out and vote, go to party meetings, understand the power of seniority and incumbency and fight like hell to get rid of republicans.

[DFW]

19. Accepting threats and ultimatums FROM David Hogg

Is of no use either.

Give me Jamie Raskin and Jon Ossoff ANY day. Tammy Baldwin, Jasmine Crockett, Amy Klobuchar, etc. They have walked the Congressional walk. By all means, let David Hogg tag along and learn some ropes. When my young Democratic friend from Iowa asked me who could give him advice for his start-up campaign, I said talk to the “over the hill” Howard Dean. He did, got some good pointers, and he is now the only Democrat to hold a statewide elected office in Iowa. He is doing it right, building a constituency, talking to LOTS of people, and if he is inaugurated in 20 years as the first president from Iowa, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

I can’t say for sure that Hogg’s gambit will fail, but that kind of stance hasn’t won yet, and if Bernie Sanders is his role model, I predict that Hogg will get no farther than boasting about crowd size in Idaho. We need bigger horizons. Bill Clinton sensed it. Barack Obama sensed it. Like MLK said, “I might not get there with you,” and they didn’t, but they put us in the right direction. Had the elections of 2000 and 2016 had better outcomes, what a wonderful world this would have been. Now, for the third time in a row, we must again start with damage control. I don’t (yet) see David Hogg leading us there.

[Passages]

6. In a recent poll, 69% of Democrats say "the Democratic Party should encourage elderly leaders to retire

and pass the torch to the next generation.”

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/new-poll-of-democratic-voters-finds-dissatisfaction-with-the-party-no-clear-party-leader

[iemanja]

8. Yet the site is near unanimous in its determination that no one be primaried, ever.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. Do you remember a few years ago when someone ran against AOC?

I should go search if I have time and refresh my memory, but I think it was someone who called themselves a centrist but had either ties to the Republicans or had RW views and had only recently become a Democrat. Pretty sure some of the loudest voices now against running against an incumbent were all for it back then.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. The same bingo brigade were all about primary-ing "the squad" just this last cycle.

[yorkster]

30. Bingo brigade?? Really?

[Sympthsical]

15. I remember

Watching people in this space effusively support a RWer was a wild time.

And you are correct. The loudest voices wishing to primary AOC with a RWer were indeed one and the same with the no primaries ever brigade.

Power once gained should never be relinquished is an interesting position for the ostensibly democratically-minded.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. I'm glad I remembered that correctly.

I just recall being so gobsmacked that some people at DU were supporting what was clearly a RWer and even in many cases trying to argue that they weren't

[SocialDemocrat61]

24. That's crazy

Unfortunately there are still some here who are not fans of AOC. I would even bet that if MTG moved to NYC and became a democrat to run against AOC, they would support MTG. Just look at the glee in which some celebrated AOC not getting the Ranking Member position on the oversight committee.

[iemanja]

16. I don't recall, but AOC mounted a primary challenge in a safe Democratic seat

Last edited Thu Apr 24, 2025, 10:02 PM - Edit history (1)

People were outraged that she dare challenge an incumbent, just as they are outraged by primary challenges today. The status quo has given us historic disapproval ratings. Ensuring all incumbents remain in office maintains that low popularity. Then there is the notion that these people are entitled to hold lifetime fiefdoms as though it were a House of Lords. That is not democratic.

[Celerity]

18. details on that 2020 primary:

Members of the anti-progressive crew really come out hard against AOC in the 2020 NY-14 Democratic primary, where they went all in (with some predicting AOC would be crushed) for the anti-progressive, centrist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, who was a long time Republican before switching parties, lived in a likely $18-20K per month (its was $15K per month in 2011) flat in the Trump International Hotel and Tower on Columbus Circle in Manhattan before she moved into the 14th district (to Sunnyside, Queens) in 2019, was backed by the RW US Chamber of Commerce, and was heavily supported by major Wall Street donors.

Caruso-Cabrera also (at least as late as October 2018) was still flogging her RW book You Know I'm Right: More Prosperity, Less Government, in which she was calling for eliminating the Departments of Labor, Commerce, Education, and also was calling for privatising Social Security.

receipts:

Michelle Caruso-Cabrera was pushing her RW book at least up until October 2018.

CNBC's Caruso-Cabrera: Eliminate Departments Of Labor, Commerce, Education And Privatize Social Security

https://crooksandliars.com/heather/cnbcs-caruso-cabrera-eliminate-departments

CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera visited the set of Morning Joe to push her new book You Know I'm Right and apparently we've got another Ayn Rand fan working for CNBC. After saying that the auto companies should have been allowed to fail, presumably to get rid of those pesky over paid union workers, Mike Barnicle asks her if she thinks we're going to have to raise taxes to pay our deficit. Cabrera of course doesn't think we should raise taxes and says that instead we should cut spending. Leslie Stahl asks her where. She replies:




snip

You Know I'm Right: More Prosperity, Less Government

https://books.google.se/books?id=DZRbKtm2FfUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=You+Know+I%27m+Right:+More+Prosperity,+Less+Government+secrecy++banking+secrecy+and+tax+havens+exist&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie2NCE-ZfqAhVhxIsKHXHBAjgQ6AEwAXoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false



'Freedom and democracy are best secured when banking secrecy and tax havens exist'

Wall Street takes aim at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in party primary

https://www.ft.com/content/580b5830-7f7e-4092-a6f7-7b451e075e10

snip

Ms Caruso-Cabrera, 53, has raised just over $2m, a substantial figure for a challenger, as dozens of chief executives, investors, bankers and lawyers have given the maximum allowable donation of $2,800 each to her primary campaign. Some have given another $2,800 for the general election.

However, Ms Ocasio-Cortez has taken in even more: $10.5m, reflecting the ability of figures on the party’s leftwing — such as Bernie Sanders, her preferred presidential candidate — to attract hundreds of thousands of small donations from contributors nationwide. The median size of her donations is $10, according to an Financial Times analysis of Federal Election Commission filings and the online fundraising platform ActBlue.

While many of Ms Caruso-Cabrera’s supporters raise money for Democrats, several are prominent business backers of President Donald Trump including Ken Langone, the billionaire founder of retailer Home Depot, activist investor Nelson Peltz and John Catsimatidis, who founded the Gristedes grocery chain. 

Larry Lindsey, a Republican economist who served in the George W Bush administration, said: “Michelle knows more about the world and how things work than probably a solid majority of Congress.” He said he had known the challenger for 15 years and wrote her campaign a cheque as soon as he learnt she was running. “She and I would consider ourselves pragmatic libertarians.” 

snip

AOC Attacked by Super PAC Funded by Primary Opponent's Husband

Mailers and digital media opposing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are being distributed by a super PAC that has received the majority of its funding from Stephen Dizard, the husband of her primary opponent, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera.

https://readsludge.com/2020/06/17/aoc-attacked-by-super-pac-funded-by-primary-opponents-husband/

Congressional candidates and the PACs that donate to them can only legally take a few thousand dollars from individual donors. But PACs that tell the Federal Election Commission that they won’t donate to or coordinate with candidates are allowed to take unlimited amounts of money from donors.

Since the contribution limits for outside spending groups were eliminated by a 2010 D.C. Circuit court ruling that came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, many PACs have tested the limits of how closely they can affiliate with candidates without being considered to be acting in coordination and, thus, no longer allowed to raise unlimited sums from donors. Now, the latest attempt to push the limits has emerged in the race between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her Democratic primary challenger, former CNBC correspondent Michelle Caruso-Cabrera.

An organization called Fight for Our Communities PAC reported its first expenditure to the FEC on Tuesday—$28,000 paid to a Pittsburgh video production company called Phenomenon Post for digital media and mailers opposing Ocasio-Cortez. The mailers and digital media were publicly distributed on Tuesday, according to the FEC filing. As of its most recent disclosure covering receipts made prior to April 30, Fight for Our Communities PAC is funded primarily by Caruso-Cabrera’s husband, Stephen Dizard, who donated $30,000 to it in April. Dizard’s donations make up more than 70% of the PAC’s total funding, according to FEC records, and it is more than ten times the amount he would be allowed to give to the Caruso-Cabrera campaign. Fight for Our Communities is required to file an updated donor disclosure on June 20.

Next to nothing is known about who is behind Fight for Our Communities PAC. The organization was formed in Delaware on March 18, less than a month after Caruso-Cabrera entered the race. Its treasurer, an unknown individual named John Gorman, does not appear to have ever worked with other political committees. The group has no public profile and no internet presence, and it has not made expenditures in any other races. Sludge asked the Caruso-Cabrera campaign if it knew how her husband was aware of the group to make his donation, but was told by a spokesperson that it had “no information” on the matter. The Caruso-Cabrera has sent multiple mailers attacking Ocasio-Cortez and is currently running attack ads in New York City.

Link to tweet

snip

[Violet_Crumble]

21. Thanks. I'm off to peruse DUs archives..

And have a chuckle to myself when I spot any double standards on primaries for incumbents. I suspect I'll be chuckling a lot.

[aocommunalpunch]

25. I hear that

It’s likely got a lot in common with my ignore list.

[Passages]

28. Receipts a plenty.

Well done.

[Keepthesoulalive]

9. Then they need to get out and make it happen

Vote in every election even for dog catcher. Put up viable candidates and raise the funds and signatures to get on the ballot, become informed about state parties. Be careful of people who just want power and don’t care about the voters.

[chowder66]

10. If I was given this poll when I was their age I would have probably had less confidence in the achievements

they listed.

Life is hard sometimes or a lot...... unless you are a trust-fund kid with narcissistic tendencies.

[JI7]

11. But they are happy with their state senator state rep, council members ?

[msongs]

13. you think they know who any of those people are lol nt

[electric_blue68]

17. It's Aggravating! How ignorant do you have to be to Fucking NOT Get differences between drumphf, and Democrats?!!!

Last edited Thu Apr 24, 2025, 10:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Making Gaza the chief issue? With so many other dire issues against so many other vulnerable populations right here in the USA, not ?3,000 miles away

Don't get me wrong. I hate Hamas, Hezbollah, but also Netanyahoo from the time he was part of RW Israelis who helped foment the atmosphere that led to Rabin's assassination.
His over extended war, no punishment, or little of it; for rogue acting IDF troops.

Plus non-War related issues like turning a blind eye to all the West Bank settlers stealing Palestinian granted lands.

He and the worse RW Israelis don't do their country much favor!

[Passages]

20. Some seem determined to lose.

Slotkin is testing a ‘war plan’ to beat Trump. She wants Dems to ditch wokeness and muscle up

Her strategy also focuses on language and tone. She said Democrats should stop using the term “oligarchy,” a phrase she said doesn’t resonate beyond coastal institutions, and just say that the party opposes “kings.” And to beat their weak and woke rap, Democrats should channel the “no-bullshit” energy of the Lions’ Campbell, she said, “A wonderfully sappy guy with his players,” but who is also “smart and tough and lovable.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/slotkin-has-a-war-plan-to-beat-trump-dont-be-weak-and-woke-00308176

[GreatGazoo]

26. Pick some 80/20 issues and ride them to higher approval

Seems simple enough.

"Do you approve or disapprove...?" -- Ugh. So those numbers represent BOTH options? versus "I neither approve nor disapprove / No opinion"

Going to assume those numbers are (low) approval but the legend is brain-dead.

[LonePirate]

27. Young voters have a point. We have two vacancies one House due to sick incumbents who died instead of retired.

We have at least one other House rep who has no business being in the House due to his age and faculties. We deserve leaders in DC who put the country and party ahead of themselves.

[Brainfodder]

29. GREED still intact I see.

56% significant wealth...

Reality check that....