Poll: Democrats don't know who their party's leader is

By Dan McCaleb 
The Center Square 

Democratic voters don't know who their party's leader is, according to new polling.

The Center Square Voters' Voice poll asked 1,187 Democratic voters: "Who, in your view, is the leader of the Democratic Party?"

A plurality – 38% – said there isn't one or they don't know.

"So none or don't know was the most popular answer," David Byler, head of research at Noble Predictive Insights, told The Center Square. "So, really, you have a lot of leaderlessness right now. Really, you have a situation where nobody knows."

The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted April 15-18 by Noble Predictive, surveyed 1,187 Democrats; 1,089 Republicans; and 251 non-leaning Independents. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll is one of only six national tracking polls in the United States. It was scheduled to coincide with Trump's 100th day in office, which is Tuesday, April 29.

Only voters who identified as Democrats were asked the question about who their leader is.

After the 38% of Democrats who said there is no party leader or they don't know who their leader is, the second most popular response was former Vice President Kamala Harris at 10%. Harris replaced then-President Joe Biden at the top of the Democrats' ticket last year after Biden exited the race. She went on to lose the presidential election to Donald Trump, who won the national popular vote and all of the swing states.

After Harris, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of New York, were each the choice of 7% of Democrats surveyed, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was the choice of 6%.

Sanders was followed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Biden at 5% each; and former President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey at 3%.

"Democrats, they just don't know, right?" Byler said. "And they're absolutely spread. AOC, Barack Obama, Biden, Bill or Hillary Clinton, Cory Booker, Hakeem, Jeffries, Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was the second biggest one, but she's only at 10%. Other Democratic politicians. you had this scattering, where some people were, like, it's [Pennsylvania Gov.] Josh Shapiro. It's, you know, this random House member..."

The Clintons polled at 1%, as did California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. No other individuals reached at least 1%.