Democrats continue to get bad news in the era of President Donald Trump, and from the looks of it, things aren’t going to improve anytime soon, mostly because the party of the Donkey is continuing to double- and triple-down on left-wing extremism rather than sound policies, Mr. and Mrs. America have said they want. To be sure, brand-new polling signals more trouble for the party, showing it is losing support among young voters—a group that has traditionally favored Democrats.
Brett Cooper, host of “The Brett Cooper Show,” said many in her generation feel alienated by a party that no longer represents their values or energy. “Democrats are completely out of touch with their voter base,” Cooper said on “Fox & Friends.” “They are aging out. We do not want them in Congress anymore on the left and the right.” Her comments come as 80-year-old Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in 2026. Durbin, first elected in 1996, has long been considered a cornerstone of the party establishment. “You see members of Congress like Dick [Durbin] who are so old,” Cooper added. “Young people feel unrepresented, and they are fed up.”
A new poll from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics shows approval of congressional Democrats among young Americans has fallen to 23%, down from 42% in early 2017. Approval for congressional Republicans stands at 29%, a slight improvement from previous years. President Donald Trump’s approval rating among 18- to 29-year-olds is at 31%, holding steady since the start of his first term. Cooper argues that dissatisfaction among young voters is widespread, cutting across ideological divides within the Democratic Party.
“If they don’t like Donald Trump, then they’re angry that their representatives are not pushing back enough. If they are more common sense in the center, they’re angry with how radical they’ve gotten. They just feel completely left alone,” she told Fox News. Despite criticism of younger progressive leaders like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cooper acknowledges that they still attract passionate support from new voters. “I think that they are going to have to change course. We will see if that works,” she said. “We’ll see if AOC resonates with as many people as they’re hoping.”
Democratic lawmakers have recently taken to social media to express outrage over issues such as mass deportations under the Trump administration, a tactic they previously used to rally younger voters during past elections. However, Cooper argues that this strategy may be losing its impact. “It is obviously an emotional issue, and they know that in order to reach Gen Z, I mean, historically, in the past, it has been through emotion, which is why you’re seeing these selfie videos, these rallying cries.”
However, Cooper, formerly with The Daily Wire, says she believes younger Americans want more than just perfomative antics on social media. “The tactics that they have been able to use in the past to reach my generation, through social media, using big, broad, emotionally charged language, that might not work,” Cooper said. “They need to listen to their voters for once and actually see how they’re responding.”