1 in 4 Democrats say party did not take full advantage of control of power in 2021: poll

A quarter of Democrats say that they don’t think their party took advantage of having control of the White House and Congress in 2021, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

The poll shows that 28 percent of respondents who identified as Democrats said their party lacked resolve or was preoccupied with internal feuds. Nearly half, or 47 percent, of those surveyed blamed Republicans for thwarting Democrats’ plans, and 25 percent said the party had, in large part, accomplished its goals.

A number of moderate Democrats in Congress have also voiced similar concerns, saying that the party has focused too much on its failures rather than its successes including the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed last year, Reuters reported. 

Specifically, Democratic respondents in the poll said they were disappointed by notable failures like President Biden’s $1.75 trillion “Build Back Better” social spending bill as well as the unsuccessful push for sweeping voter rights reform, both of which would have required Democrats to override Senate filibuster rules.

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) both voted against changing the filibuster rules for the voting rights bill.

For the upcoming midterm elections in November, 55 percent of Democrats polled said they were certain to vote compared to 59 percent of Republicans who said the same. 

The poll was conducted online between Jan. 31 and Feb. 8 and included responses from 4,404 adults including 2,015 who identified as Democrats, 1,663 who identified as Republicans and 510 who identified as independents. It has a margin of error of 2-5 percentage points.

Updated at 9:14 a.m.