Nancy Pelosi told Democrats for years they were the party of the people.
Now the people have answered back.
A brand-new poll just confirmed what conservatives have known for years – and even Schumer's own voters are finally admitting it.
Democrat Approval Rating Hits Record Low in Fox News Poll
The Fox News poll released this week is brutal.
A record 70% of registered voters now disapprove of the job congressional Democrats are doing.
That number is up six points since December alone.
And it gets worse for Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.
Only 62% of Democrats approve of their own party's congressional leadership – compared to 77% of Republicans who back their team.
The NBC News survey out the same week tells the same story.
Just 30% of registered voters view the Democratic Party positively, with 52% viewing it negatively.
That is not a polling dip.
That is a collapse.
Chuck Schumer Approval Rating Is Now Worse Than Any Congressional Leader
The Wall Street Journal found the same thing last summer – and the numbers have only gotten worse since.
Sixty-three percent of voters said the Democratic Party was out of touch with everyday Americans – the worst favorability rating in the Journal's 35-year polling history.
CNN analyst Harry Enten went on air and said the party's numbers were "lower than the Dead Sea."
He wasn't exaggerating.
Quinnipiac's December poll found just 18% of voters approved of congressional Democrats, with 73% disapproving – a record low since Quinnipiac began asking the question in 2009.
And here is the detail Schumer does not want you to focus on.
Among Democrats themselves, only 42% approved of their party's congressional performance in that survey – while 48%, a majority of their own voters, said Democrats in Congress were doing a bad job.
This Is What a Party Without a Message Looks Like
Schumer has been in Congress since 1981.
He has spent 45 years in Washington telling Americans he is fighting for them.
The polls say Americans have stopped believing it.
His personal net approval rating sits at –41 – the worst of any congressional leader on either side.
Jeffries is not far behind at –26.
Even Democrats running for Senate in 2026 are running away from Schumer as fast as they can.
In Maine, in Iowa, in Michigan – insurgent candidates are making "I won't vote for Schumer as leader" a campaign promise.
Union leaders – the backbone of the old Democratic coalition – are calling Schumer's DSCC and telling them to get out of their primaries.
Michael Monahan, a vice president with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, wrote a letter to party leadership blasting what he called their "failure to adequately listen to working-class voters."
These are not Republicans saying this.
These are the people who were supposed to march under Schumer's banner into the midterms.
What Schumer built over four decades is falling apart – and the polls are just the receipts.
Democrats want voters to forget all of this by November.
They want you focused on tariffs and health care costs and anything except the fact that their own coalition is walking out the door.
But Republicans only need to hold the Senate in November to put two more justices on the Supreme Court – justices who will be deciding cases long after Schumer is gone.
Chuck Schumer spent 45 years in Washington telling Americans he was fighting for them.
Turns out Americans finally got the message – he was fighting for himself.
Sources:
- Paul Steinhauser, "Democrats sink to new voter low, Republicans also underwater: poll," Fox News, March 9, 2026.
- Fox News Poll, "Voters give poor marks to economy, Congress and Trump," Fox News, March 4, 2026.
- Quinnipiac University Poll, "Voters Give Democrats In Congress A Record Low Job Approval," Quinnipiac University, December 17, 2025.
- "Democratic Party Hits Lowest Approval in Over 30 Years," Newsweek, July 2025.
- YouGov/Economist Poll, "Opinion of congressional Democrats plunges," YouGov, January 2026.
