By A growing share of Americans say the Democratic Party has lost touch with the country it claims to represent. According to a new survey by Welcome, a center-left organization, 70% of voters now view the party as “out of touch” with the issues that matter most to them—an increase of nearly twenty points since 2013. The findings suggest a steady erosion of confidence among working-class and minority voters who once formed the backbone of the Democratic coalition.
The report, titled Deciding to Win, portrays a party preoccupied with cultural and identity-based issues at the expense of economic and public-safety concerns, writes The New York Post. “To win elections, Democrats need to make the following changes,” the authors wrote. “First, we need to focus more on the issues voters do not think we prioritize enough (the economy, the cost of living, health care, border security, public safety), and focus less on the issues voters think we prioritize too highly (climate change, democracy, abortion, and identity and cultural issues).”
The study found that many Americans believe Democrats have become overly focused on “Protecting the rights of undocumented immigrants” and “Protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans,” alienating voters who care more about secure borders, affordable living costs, and reducing crime. Those surveyed said the party’s priorities should instead include “Protecting Social Security and Medicare” (82%), “Lowering everyday costs” (79%), “Making healthcare more affordable” (74%), “Creating jobs and economic growth” (74%), “Cutting taxes on the middle class” (66%), “Lowering the rate of crime” (56%), and “Securing the border” (53%). By contrast, just 23% said Democrats should focus on protecting illegal immigrants and only 25% supported elevating LGBTQ rights as a party priority.
Prioritization: To win again, our party needs to relentlessly focus on economic issues.
The problem: Since 2012, we've become dramatically more focused on issues like climate, democracy, abortion, and identity – and less focused on the economy/middle class.
Data below. (3/14) pic.twitter.com/ZAWmRHs2bW
— Simon Bazelon (@simon_bazelon) October 27, 2025
“Second, we need to moderate our positions on issues where our agenda is unpopular, including immigration, public safety, energy production, and some identity and cultural issues,” the group advised. The shift it urges reflects what many Democratic strategists have quietly acknowledged for years: that the party’s message increasingly resonates only with college-educated elites while alienating the very voters it once called its own.
The data reinforce that warning. Support for the Democratic Party “has declined significantly among working-class and minority voters since 2012,” particularly among moderates and conservatives in those groups. Between 2012 and 2024, support grew slightly among college-educated white voters (+4%) and all college-educated voters (+2%)—but collapsed among non-college-educated Latino voters (−16%), non-college-educated AAPI voters (−15%), and non-college-educated Black voters (−11%). The pattern underscores the extent to which cultural politics, rather than economic pragmatism, now defines the party’s public image.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party—long derided as out of touch itself—has seen modest gains. In 2013, 70% of Americans viewed the GOP as disconnected from the public. Today, that number has fallen to 65%. Only 39% of voters say the Democratic Party now has the right priorities, while 59% say it does not.
“It is essential that we make these strategic shifts because it is essential that we win,” the Welcome report concluded. “But winning does not happen by accident. Winning is a choice — a choice to be disciplined and strategic and to be willing to confront difficult truths about the electorate.”
The poll, conducted from November 2024 through June 2025 and encompassing more than 500,000 respondents, arrives in the aftermath of the 2024 election that returned Republicans to the White House and Senate. It is both diagnosis and warning—a reminder that voters who once believed the Democratic Party spoke for them now see it speaking a different language altogether.
It essentially confirmed what Donald Trump pointed out during the 2024 campaign: Democrats are for They/Them, not you.
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