We could also ask how well it’s going for Republicans. But what fun is that?

Earlier today, the New York Times reported that Democrats can’t decide on the next steps after an embarrassing national-election loss. Should they make some significant changes, or stay the course and hope that Donald Trump will make them look better in comparison? Well, Quinnipiac just dropped a big data point on that question:

An absolutely brutal @QuinnipiacPoll for Democrats:

Republican Party: 43% favorable, 45% unfavorable (-2)

Democratic Party: 31% favorable, 57% unfavorable (-26) pic.twitter.com/m0RgPmGWno

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) January 29, 2025

Just 31 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, while 57 percent have an unfavorable opinion, the lowest mark since Quinnipiac started asking that question.

In the opposite direction, Republicans have a new high in Quinnipiac surveys of 43 percent favorable. But they’re still slightly underwater, with 45 percent having an unfavorable view.

In the earlier NYT report, a good number of Democrats sounded as though they thought the November election results were a fluke. This poll demonstrates that they’re lucky to have mainly held serve in the House. It’s not as if Quinnipiac is a GOP-friendly pollster either; they usually lean Democrat to some degree. Having a -26 in a Q-poll is an indication of brand disaster for Democrats.

On that point, a brief tangent for a demonstration of why voters might rank Democrats lower than used-car salesmen:

BERNIE: "Are you supportive of these onesies??"

Megyn Kelly loses it 🤣 pic.twitter.com/7TQ1iJAplE

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 29, 2025

Gee, I wonder why voters might think Democrats are complete clowns?

As for Republicans, not only is this a new high for favorability, it comes after Donald Trump’s first blizzard of EOs and pardons. Not only do voters still think more highly of the GOP, they’re also a lot more comfortable with Trump:

Days into his second administration, 46 percent of voters approve of the job Trump is doing, a 10 point bump from the university’s January 2017 poll where he had a 36 percent approval.The president’s disapproval rating sits at 43 percent and 11 percent of voters did not give an opinion.

How did Trump and the GOP get so popular, and how did Democrats get so unpopular? Quinnipiac’s data should deliver a big dose of reality to the latter, especially those involved in confirmation hearings:

• "A majority of voters (60 percent) approve of sending U.S. troops to the southern border with Mexico to enforce border security, while 36 percent disapprove."
• On deportations, 44% support deporting all illegal aliens, and another 39% support deporting those convicted of crimes. Only six percent — six percent — oppose deportations.
• Sixty percent support sending the military to the southern border to secure it. Among independents, it’s 57/40, and even 29% of Democrats support that move.

All of these are contributing factors, but likely not the whole story. After all, majorities of voters oppose some of Trump’s other moves and priorities, such as acquiring Greenland, the J6 pardons, and so on. (Significantly more respondents oppose Joe Biden’s pardons.) 

The real difference, which got magnified even before the inauguration, is that Trump projects leadership. For the past four years, voters could clearly see that Biden wasn’t really in charge and couldn’t handle the job, while Democrats spent years lying about what was obvious to everyone. Trump has spent the last several weeks making that contrast clear, and his sudden shift in positive favorability over the last two-plus months reflects that voters see and understand the difference, even if the Protection Racket Media wants to ignore it.