The research speaks loud and clear: with a lack of unity and disjointed priorities, the Democratic Party’s trustworthiness is reeling.

Internal polling conducted by Navigator Research, a Democratic organization, found that a majority of their voters in battleground states believe their party is in peril. As pollster Molly Murphy put it, “The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people’s challenges.” And the numbers speak for themselves.

According to the research, less than half (42%) of the surveyed Democrats believe the party shares their values. In fact, a whopping 56% claimed that their party is not “looking out for working people,” and only 39% feels Democrats have the right priorities. The disconnect runs even deeper, with the poll revealing that many respondents don’t view their party as one that has respect for the jobs they’ve been elected to perform. Only 44% of those polled believe Democrats have high regard for the work they do. An even smaller group, 39%, has hope that Democrats value their work at all.

Murphy highlighted that the numbers point to an overall lack of trust Democratic voters have with their own party. “Even though voters are critical about Trump and some of the things he’s doing,” she stated, “that criticism of Trump doesn’t translate into trust in Democrats. The trust has to be earned.”

Republicans have their problem areas too. The research found that, on economic issues, only roughly one third of voters approve of the GOP’s job. Yet, despite this, the Navigator survey, which surveyed 62 competitive House districts across America, found that voters are more likely to trust Republicans on the economy and inflation over Democrats.

But ultimately, when it comes to Democrats, Politico’s Elena Scheider pointed out that their “difficulties appear to go deeper” than the economy. For instance, 69% of Democratic voters believe their party is “too focused on being politically correct,” with 51% who described the party as “elitist.” Schneider also explained how, “since Trump’s reelection, Democrats have struggled to mount a coherent message, even as the president has sent the stock market into a spiral over tariffs.” Just last week, during Trump’s address to Congress, Democrats waved protest signs, sat stone-faced as he honored a young brain-cancer patient, and watched several colleagues storm off the House floor mid-speech. All this reflects “a party that’s disconnected from its own brand” — “weak and overly focused on diversity and elites,” as 2024 post-mortems suggested.

Family Research Council’s David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview, pointed to cultural flashpoints like LGBT issues as another fracture in the Democrats’ crumbling brand. As he told The Washington Stand, “It is becoming increasingly clear that Democratic Party leaders did not learn some of the most important lessons of the 2024 election,” in which the majority of voters opted for a takedown of progressive agendas.

“In fact,” he continued, “it appears that many elected Democrats are digging in deeper on the very policies that lost them the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives in the past election.” There are certain figures, Closson explained, such as “Democratic politicians with national aspirations like California Governor Gavin Newsom, who have begun to walk back support for radical, transgender ideology.” But for “many of the current elected Democrats, they are doubling down on policies that were rejected at the ballot box.”

According to Closson, the issue concerning trans-identifying men participating in women’s sports is a good example of this. “Just recently,” he said, “every Senate Democrat voted against legislation that would protect women from being forced to compete against men or share intimate spaces, such as showers or locker rooms. This is an issue the polls consistently show an overwhelming majority of Americans feel strongly about. And yet, the Democrats seem intent on siding with the minority of ideologues who insist on this radical policy.”

The question remains: will Democrats ever recognize their disconnect with voters and change course? There are “some Democrats who are beginning to recognize just how far out of step their policies are with the mainstream,” Closson stated, with Newsom potentially being an example with his supposed change of heart on girls’ sports. “Some Democrats like the governor of California are making strategic pivots out of concern for their own political viability in the future.” But beyond Democrats, Closson addressed what Republicans, conservatives, and Christians can learn from this.

“In my view,” Closson said, “when it comes to transgender ideology and the pushback we’ve seen in recent years — whether it’s on the sports issue or gender transition procedures on minor children — is that the natural law seems to always find a way” of taking its rightful place in the discussion. “Even a post-Christian culture realizes how contrary to common sense in science some of the most aggressive gender ideology is.”

“My hope,” he concluded, “is that Christians recognize they’re on the right side when it comes to these issues, and that biblical revelation adheres with insights derived from biology and science when it comes to this issue.”