U.S. Politics
State of the Parties 2024: DNC Edition
Report summary
State of the Parties is an annual feature dating back to 2016 that examines Americans’ attitudes on the Democratic and Republican parties. This report, which focuses on the Democratic Party, is the second of two editions Morning Consult released this year for each national nominating convention.
Key Takeaways
- Key groups such as women, independents, the youngest eligible voters and Black or Hispanic Americans have become more likely to see the Democratic Party as fresh — and less likely to say it’s stale — compared with their views before the June 27 presidential debate.
- In just over a month, Harris has emerged from Biden’s and Barack Obama’s respective shadows to become the leading Democratic figure by a large margin, including among the party’s liberals, moderates and democratic socialists.
- Despite Harris’ ascendancy, voters are still more likely to say it’s the Republican Party that will keep the country safe and can tackle the big issues. Despite small upticks in favorable sentiment on some aspects of the Democratic Party’s ability to govern since late June, voters nonetheless see smaller differences in competence between the two parties than ever before.
- While it’s liberals that tend to grade the Democratic Party best on measures of competency, empathy and representation, the differences between them and the other two largest sects of the base — liberals and democratic socialists — are relatively small.
Data Downloads
Pro+ subscribers are able to download the datasets that underpin Morning Consult Pro's reports and analysis. Contact us to get access.
Methodology
Data from this report comes from surveys conducted July 8-10, 2016, Aug. 5-14, 2020, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2023, and June 25-27, 2024. The 2016 survey was conducted among a representative sample of 2,001 registered voters, compared with representative samples of 3,735 registered voters in 2020, 3,982 registered voters in 2023 and 3,609 registered voters in 2024. Each survey has an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.
About the authors
Cameron Easley is Morning Consult’s lead analyst for U.S. politics. Prior to moving into his current role, he led Morning Consult's editorial coverage of U.S. politics and elections from 2016 through 2022. Cameron joined Morning Consult from Roll Call, where he was managing editor. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Follow him on Twitter @cameron_easley. Interested in connecting with Cameron to discuss his analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].
Eli Yokley is Morning Consult’s U.S. politics analyst. Eli joined Morning Consult in 2016 from Roll Call, where he reported on House and Senate campaigns after five years of covering state-level politics in the Show Me State while studying at the University of Missouri in Columbia, including contributions to The New York Times, Politico and The Daily Beast. Follow him on Twitter @eyokley. Interested in connecting with Eli to discuss his analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].
