Democratic Connecticut senator explains why party's approval rating is low ahead of 2026

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, explained during a podcast on Thursday that he believes his party's approval rating is "in the toilet" because the party is not being tough enough on President Donald Trump.

The party's rating in a Pew Research national survey last month showed 60% of respondents viewed Democrats unfavorably, and 38% viewed them favorably. A Wall Street Journal poll in late March showed similar numbers.

Murphy told the New York Times' "Interesting Times" podcast host Ross Douthat that voters believe Democrats need to be tougher on Trump, who has taken a different approach to his second administration than his first.

"I don’t know that anyone was ready for Trump in his second term," the senator said. "I think there was an assumption, both in the public and within the Democratic Party, that Trump 2 would look very much like Trump 1, that it’d be a lot of rhetoric and bluster, but it wouldn’t be matched with actual action.

"I think that the broad public has been very dissatisfied with the Democrats’ reaction, and that’s in part why you see approval ratings for the party in the toilet," he added.

The senator urged other members of his party to step up their criticism of the president, or face repercussions in the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats drastically underperformed in the 2024 general election.

"Our response is getting better, it’s getting more precise, but there is still an open discussion inside the Democratic Party as to how urgent this moment is," Murphy explained. "I’m not sure which side is going to win. I think if my side — the side that believes it is five-alarm urgent — doesn’t win, we might not actually have an election that Democrats can compete in in 2026."

He said that his party needs to be "flooding the zone" on social media and that they need to be "expressing outrage every single day."

He also claimed that he believes Trump won in 2024 because voters did not believe he would try to be a dictator, but did believe he would help the economy. 

Former President Joe Biden on Thursday chalked Trump's victory up to low voter turnout among Democrats.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.