What Voters Told Democrats About ICE, Costs and Which Party Is ‘Judgy’

The midterm election year is young, but there have already been plenty of troubling developments for Republicans, including the shrinking of their already-narrow House majority, evidence of rising food prices and new tensions within the party.

None of that means that the Democrats’ myriad problems have been magically resolved.

Many voters “see Democrats and Republicans as part of one big problem,” Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan told me recently, a comment that struck me as a subtly damning indictment of her party. (Separately, Slotkin made big news this week, telling The New York Times that federal prosecutors were investigating her after she participated in a video urging military service members to resist illegal orders.)

Slotkin is a member of Majority Democrats, a new group of federal, state and local elected officials who are trying to remake the party’s image and recruit fresh candidates. Since the summer, members of Majority Democrats have been hosting town halls and round tables across the country, looking to connect with a wide range of voters — including those who supported President Trump in 2024, or who did not vote at all.

I decided to focus-group the focus groups, hoping to hear what these elected officials learned about the mood of the electorate from their events and subsequent voter conversations. Their remarks have been excerpted and edited for length and clarity:

On immigration:

Representative Pat Ryan of New York, who held a focus group at the end of August with voters who backed both him and Trump in 2024:

“The level of real angst and frustration with President Trump’s overreach on ICE in particular — I was pretty stunned. And it’s only gotten dramatically worse. “It was the combination of overreach on things like ICE, and essentially rounding up their neighbors, and in many cases, their fellow employees, and then not addressing the affordability concerns.

“We always have to be reiterating a commitment to public safety, to securing our border… But this is very different than that. This has reached a level that feels, I think, un-American to a lot of people.”

On Democrats’ brand problems:

Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware, who held a town hall in November with Democratic-leaning voters, on what she’s hearing across her state:

“They want us to be fighters, but they don’t want us to be judgy … Fighting doesn’t mean dispensing with imperfect allies. Fighting doesn’t mean casting aspersions on everyone who isn’t in lock-step with you.

“I don’t think it’s constructive or accurate to describe someone who believes in the dignity and rights of transgender people, but who has questions about athletic policies — I don’t think it’s appropriate or constructive to call that person a bigot. I don’t believe that they’re a bigot.

“I don’t think it’s constructive to suggest that people who want some kind of border security or are passionate about public safety, that they automatically do not care about rights of marginalized people.’

“I don’t think any or even most Democrats were saying that, but I do think that there was enough rhetoric within and from our own coalition that gave that impression, that it left a lot of voters believing that we did not like them.

“I don’t want everyone who loves me as a trans person to cut off everyone in their life who isn’t already, quote-unquote, ‘perfect’ on every trans rights issue.”

Slotkin:

“If you care about everything, then we don’t know what your priorities are. And so Democrats still, I think, have an issue with being for everything … How do we boil down what we really care about to two or three things that actually impact people?

“People care about the cost of living, and they want someone who’s going to actually do something about that. And they want a new generation of leadership. And if you’re missing those themes at this point, as an elected leader, I just can’t help you.

“Lots of people that I see are happy to spend time talking about other issues that are important but aren’t existential to 80 percent of Americans.”

On affordability:

Ryan on why he does not use that word with constituents:

“It’s like a very consultant word. Nobody actually says that word sitting around the kitchen table.

“They’re like, ‘[Stuff] is too expensive, I need help … And whoever helps me, that’s who I’m going to respect and vote for. And whoever makes promises that they’re going to help me and doesn’t, that’s going to piss me off.’”

On disillusionment with both parties:

Slotkin, who joined Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Mo., in his hometown for a focus group with attendees who skipped the 2024 election:

“People are not watching the daily news cycle. They don’t know who’s for an issue, who’s against an issue — they just know it’s not working for them, and they’re mad at everybody.

“People know, in general, that Trump ran on lowering costs … They know that they have not saved money. Now, whether that translates to big electoral changes is yet to be seen, because I still think the Democrats have a reputational issue to deal with.”

Mayor Lucas on distrust of Washington:

“To the extent they did not vote, it was that they were turned off by both sides. ‘Everybody bickers, everybody fights,’ was what you heard a lot. ‘They’re all children, and they’re not talking about or thinking about our issues.’

“I found that very intriguing. There’s this view that Democrats aren’t talking about it. They get associated with Donald Trump’s rhetoric, even if they’re not actually co-opting it.”