Copyright MassLive
Democratic voters aren’t convinced that the party has any clear leadership, a new poll by Politico found. Voters were asked to answer one open-ended question: who do you consider to be the leader of the Democratic Party? Roughly 31% of participants in the poll, all of whom voted for former vice president Kamala Harris in 2024, are either unsure of who the leader is or say the party has no leader. “Not sure who it is now, that is kind of the problem,” a 50-year-old white woman voter in California said, according to Politico. “I do not believe there is a leader right now,” a 49-year-old white man in Maryland answered. Harris is the only person who broke double digits, with 16% of voters saying she is the leader of the Democratic party. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the house minority leader in the senate, received the second-most votes for a named politician, with 7.7% saying he is the party’s leader. U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and former president Barack Obama both received 7.4% of the vote. Rounding out the top five people was California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who 6.2% of voters said was the leader of the Democratic party. Democratic strategist and co-founder of WelcomePAC Lauren Harper Pope told Politico that the Democratic party is “factionally and ideologically” divided. “I couldn’t tell you who the leader of the Democratic Party is, either, and I work in Democratic politics,” she said. The poll comes after Democrats swept key races in this year’s elections on Tuesday, with New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill, Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani all winning their respective races.
