President Donald Trump’s sweeping electoral victory in 2024 marked one of the biggest challenges to Democrats’ sense of self that the party had ever endured.
Despite their efforts to portray the candidate as a crypto-authoritarian and a “threat to democracy,” voters in November delivered Trump the party’s largest presidential win for a Republican since 1988: Trump won 312 electoral votes, including victories in all seven swing states, as well as the popular vote.
While Democrats acknowledged that Trump could squeak out a narrow win before the election, nobody in the party was counting on a defeat at this level.
For months, Democrats have sought their identity in this post-2024 political world: Some have pushed for the party to moderate on social issues and focus on core economic issues; others have encouraged a push further to the left, particularly progressives and young Democrats.
The Epoch Times spoke to voters at events across the U.S. about Democrats’ response to Trump’s aggressive first 100 days—and what the future may hold for the party.
Since November, Democrats have debated over the proper path forward for the party. But one common theme has emerged among several voters and commentators: a belief that the party pushed too far on certain social issues, particularly those related to LGBT issues and crime.
Mark Mellman, president of the Democratic consulting and polling firm the Mellman Group, told The Epoch Times, “The reality is, hard as it is for us Democrats to believe, voters see us as just as extreme as Republicans.”
He said this “doesn’t make sense to us Democrats, but that’s the fundamental reality, and so we have to moderate our image, and we have to focus on what’s most important to most people.”
That includes kitchen table issues with broad appeal to a cross-section of voters, particularly the working class, whom Trump successfully courted on his road back to the White House.
For much of the first 100 days, Democrats have been reactive—responding to Trump’s push to dismantle a government agency, or cut funding from a department, or carry out mass layoffs of bureaucrats.
Though divisive, the president’s sweeping executive action across his first 100 days has prompted little official response from the out-of-power Democrats, who currently hold the minority in both chambers.
A common theme for many voters and commentators who weighed in was that, in many cases, Democrats were overwhelmed by the speed of the changes under Trump 2.0.
“It’s startling how fast and furious it all began, right out of the gate,” Laura Self of St. Louis told The Epoch Times during an April 25 Democratic town hall in Chesterfield, Missouri.
Still, many Democratic voters are becoming frustrated with what they perceive as inaction. These voters say they want unity in the party and more aggressive action in pushing back against administration policies that they see as executive overreach.
“On January 20, 2025, the United States stopped being a constitutional democracy,” John Hixson of Wildwood told The Epoch Times. “We’re being ruled by royal decree.”
Several attendees said they were initially disappointed by the response of the Democratic Party to Trump’s rapid-fire actions but had lately found reasons for optimism.
“Will Rogers was right,” Hixson, a longtime independent voter who has favored Democratic candidates since 2016, said. Quoting Rogers, Hixson said: “‘I would never belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”
“They’re completely disorganized,” Hixson added.
The sentiment was shared by Terry Gasperino, a fitness coach for the elderly who spoke to The Epoch Times at an event in Saxaphaw, North Carolina.
Asked whether the party needed reform, Gasperino replied, “Reform? They need to fight harder right now, we have a democracy that’s in peril.”
After a response that many Democratic voters saw as floundering, these voters nevertheless feel that the party is beginning to pick itself back up.
Recently, efforts like targeted town hall events in GOP districts, national tours by popular progressive figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) record-breaking 25 hour Senate floor speech against the administration have buoyed many voters’ hopes in the party.
Still, with the 2026 election season already looming on the horizon for both parties, Democrats say the party still has a lot of work to do in mounting an effective opposition until then.
—Joseph Lord, Jackson Richman, and Lawrence Wilson
BOOKMARKS
More than 100 illegal immigrants were arrested during a raid on an underground night club in Colorado Springs that is allegedly frequented by members of the gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua (TdA), The Epoch Times’ Joseph Lord reported. In addition to illegal immigrants who were remanded to ICE custody, agents say drugs and several firearms were recovered.
Victims of the car attack during a street festival in Vancouver on April 26 range in age from 5 to 65, police say. The Epoch Times’ Melanie Sun, Omid Ghoreishi, and Jacob Burg reported that police have charged Vancouver resident Adam Kai-Ji Lo, 30, with eight counts of second-degree murder.
Two Epoch Times journalists accepted awards on April 25 for their reporting on religious issues, The Epoch Times’ Nanette Holt reported. This included work exposing human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and efforts to support Jews in war-ravaged Israel.
The U.S. is seeking the extradition of two suspects arrested in Serbia related to a scheme targeting a Los Angeles artist, The Epoch Times’ Frank Fang reported. One of those allegedly operated “on behalf of the PRC government” and tasked the other suspect with passing tasks to third parties.
In California, new oil drilling permits from the state have dropped from thousands per year to just dozens, The Epoch Times’ Brad Jones reported. New permits have plummeted while dependence on imports is hurting the environment and the economy, critics say.
