Study finds Democrats have moved left; 70% of voters say they are ‘out of touch’ 

Democrats are increasingly out of touch with voters, sweeping new research finds, as the party has shifted far left over the past decade. 

Polling conducted by Welcome, a center-left group established in 2021, found 70% of the hundreds of thousands of voters surveyed over six months viewed the Democrat Party as “out of touch,” Semafor reports. 

The 70-page study, titled “Deciding to Win,” urges Democrats to move toward the center and focus more on rank-and-file issues such as the economy and public safety rather than cultural or identity-based issues. 

Researchers found voters believe the party places too much emphasis on LGBTQ rights and climate change while neglecting to fight crime and the rising cost of living. The study says Democrats are most trusted on issues that rank lower in importance to most voters. 

“First, we need to focus more on the issues voters do not think we prioritize enough,” the report argues. “Second, we need to moderate our positions on issues where our agenda is unpopular, including immigration, public safety, energy production, and some identity and cultural issues.” 

A shift toward unpopularity 

The study was birthed after former President Donald Trump’s stunning victory last November, when he won the popular vote, carried all seven swing states and helped Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress. 

Trump has spent much of his first year in office rolling back policies enacted under Joe Biden, including open borders and the transgender agenda. 

Between the start of President Barack Obama’s second term and the end of Biden’s term, the party’s rhetoric and policy support shifted sharply left, the report notes. References in its party platform to specific racial groups rose 1,127%; mentions of environmental justice climbed 333%; and discussions of LGBTQ rights increased 1,044% over that period. 

Obama himself embodied this shift – saying on the campaign trail in 2008 that marriage was between a man and a woman, but by 2015 hosting a Pride Month reception and displaying rainbow flags at the White House to celebrate the legalization of gay marriage. 

Welcome’s analysis said the party’s focus has increasingly reflected the priorities of its affluent, white, liberal base rather than working-class voters or minorities. This was seen in the 2024 election, in which Trump won a quarter of the black male vote. 

“White Democrats are more liberal than non-White Democrats,” the study found. “Highly educated Democrats also hold more liberal views than working-class Democrats on both economic and social issues – and see economic issues as relatively lower priorities.” 

The party’s donors, both large and small, are “more left-wing than Democrats overall,” and “Democratic elites are significantly to the left of the general public,” which helps explain Republicans’ popular appeal. “Democrats should break with the Biden administration,” the report says, noting voters disliked Biden’s approach to border security and the economy. 

2028 candidates 

The study also looks ahead at 2028, giving Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear high marks for outperforming expectations in his most recent election. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was next, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom was last on the list, only slightly behind Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

The report recommends picking a nominee that doesn’t have a record conflicting with a “common-sense, popular agenda,” something it says doomed Kamala Harris. It did not say which candidates, if any, meet this criteria. 

“We must also do a better job of listening to and appealing to voters’ frustrations with the political establishment,” the report concludes. “But we must understand that criticizing the status quo is a complement to advocating for popular policies on the issues that matter most to the American people, not a substitute.” 

The party’s problems appear to run deep. 

“I thought Biden had proven in the 2020 primary that the base of the Democratic Party is a 58-year old woman without a college degree,” said Greg Schultz, who managed Biden’s primary campaign. “But when you hear people in DC say ‘the base,’ they mean white intellectuals that live in a few coastal cities.”