Even Dem Voters Show Signs Of ‘Buyer’s Remorse’ Over Party’s Unprecedented Electoral Moves

by Terry Jones

As Election Day looms and polls tighten up, a solid majority of Americans remain unhappy with the Democratic Party’s machinations to remove President Joe Biden as its candidate and replace him with Vice President Kamala Harris. And it’s not strictly partisan. Many Democrats are also upset at how the party switched candidates, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

As Harris continues to struggle, the national online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,240 registered voters indicates lingering widespread disappointment with the Democratic Party’s maneuvers to get rid of the age-impaired Biden last July.

The poll asked voters whether they agreed or disagreed with the following three statements:

1. “The process the Democratic Party used to select its nominee for President did not yield the strongest candidate.”
2. “The process the Democratic Party used to select Kamala Harris as its nominee was undemocratic.”
3. “I lost significant faith in the Democratic Party because it did not disclose Biden’s health issues during the primary process.”

For the first question, 58% said they either “agree strongly” (41%) or “agree somewhat” (17%). (Numbers on all calculations might not add up exactly due to rounding). At the same time, just 32% said they disagreed.

Independents largely viewed the Dems’ moves as the Republicans did. Among indie and third-party voters, 55% agreed with the statement in No. 1 above, while about a third disagreed.

Even Democrats weren’t exactly thrilled with the move. Some 40% agreed either “somewhat” or “strongly” that Harris was not the strongest candidate the party could have had, while 52% disagreed.

The feeling of disappointment was broadly spread across all 36 of the I&I/TIPP demographic groupings, with only Democratic Party members, black voters, and self-described liberals defending Harris as the strongest possible candidate.

Meanwhile, black and Hispanic voters, often lumped together for polling purposes, showed an eye-opening disparity. Among likely voters, 55% of black voters said they felt Harris was the strongest possible candidate, while only 25% of Hispanics did, a huge 30-point difference.

The remaining two responses of the three weren’t too far different.

The second question asked voters whether voters agreed that the Democratic Party’s process for installing Harris as the party’s candidate, without a popular vote of any sort, was “undemocratic.”

Once again, an overall majority — 52% to 38% — agreed the Democrats’ process was “undemocratic.” A solid majority (71%) of Republicans agreed, along with a slim plurality of independents (45%).

But once again, more than one out of three Democrats (37%) agreed that their party process for picking a candidate was “undemocratic.”

The third and final question asked voters if they had “lost their faith” in the Democratic Party due to its failure to disclose Biden’s health issues during the primaries earlier this year.

Among all voters, 55% responded that they agree. For Republicans, those saying “agree” totaled a hefty 80%. Indies again sat in the middle, at 45%, while among Dems it was 37%.

Will the solid one-third of Democrats who remain angry with their party over how Harris became the nominee cost them the election? Will they still vote anyway, or just stay home?

The Democratic Party apparatus shows signs of deep concern with how Harris’ campaign is turning out.

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