With Approval Ratings At An All-Time Low, Wyoming Democrats Searching For Direction

LARAMIE — National approval ratings for the Democratic Party are at an all-time low.

Wyoming Democrats attending a “Gather For Good” rally opposing President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman on Wednesday offered few clear answers as to how their party should move forward, beyond speaking out against the administration and Republicans.

“That’s one of the things in the Democratic Party are trying to grapple with,” said Wyoming Democratic Party National Committeeman Lucas Fralick, who’s running for state party chair this summer. “I do think in the Wyoming party, one of the things that we’re definitely looking towards is to show up more, be present where people are going to be.”

Tanner Ewalt, communications director of the Wyoming Democratic Caucus, said it’s understandable that some Democrats feel frustrated with their party right now, but the answer moving forward is to make their voices heard and let Republicans, who control the executive branch and hold majorities in the U.S. Senate and House, know how they feel about issues.

Although most Democrats aren’t happy with President Donald Trump’s policies, it hasn’t led the party to coalesce around its own leaders. 

In new polls released by NBC News and CNN this week, the Democratic Party has reached its lowest approval rating ever recorded: 27% and 29%, respectively. In both cases, these declines came about because many Democrats now say they disapprove of their own leadership.

There’s not much positivity to point to in the Democratic Party these days. 

All three living Democratic ex-presidents and former Vice President Kamala Harris have been mostly quiet since Trump took office. 

Congressional leadership hasn’t been inspiring either, with many Democrats mad at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to acquiesce to Republicans’ recent government funding bill to avoid a shutdown.

Scene Of The Rally

The purpose of the Wednesday rally that started at the Albany County Courthouse and ended at the Laramie Civic Center where Hageman was holding a town hall later that night was to engage people about what’s going on around them.

“I think that’s where the Democrats need to get back to,” said David Wilhelms, organizer of the rally.

Wilhelms, who participated in his first political campaign in 1968, compared the current state of the Democratic Party to where it was in the 1980s under former presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Fralick said one of the Democrats’ biggest downfalls in Wyoming is that they're non-existent at times. Showing up for Hageman’s rally, he said, was incredibly critical. 

“We need to be there,” he said. “Events like this, we’re here, we’re not going away. That’s going to be a big step for us.”

‘Leaderless’

Donal O’Toole said he’ll get a better idea about what the party should do when he attends a “Where We Go From Here” with Bernie Sanders event in Denver on Friday, featuring U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.

“I think at the moment, in terms of leadership in Washington, pretty leaderless,” O’Toole said. “In terms of events like this, it’s going to come from the grassroots and how we need to respond to this.”

Mikhail Shevelenko, who considers himself an independent, voted for the first time last November. He believes the Democrats aren’t effective because they don’t have a consistent issue to rally around.

“You have no core base that you can rely on anymore, and then you leave and those people that really depend on you feel abandoned and mistrust on a national level,” he said, “and don’t want to give you your vote and don’t want to have you be their voice.”

Path Forward

Justin Attebury had a different perspective and argued that the recent budget debacle was exactly what Democrats needed to reinvigorate themselves. 

“So that overall, it gives them a little bit more energy to do the right thing,” he said. “Even if that opposition isn’t accepted, if it isn’t practiced and it isn’t energized, then it doesn’t have a chance to become more than what it is right now.”

Some of the protest signs at the rally compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and called him a fascist. For Andi Berry, a Republican, this isn’t necessarily the approach she believes will make the Democratic Party successful again.

“I’d like us to be working more in the center,” she said. “We need to remember that we’re all neighbors and all love each other.”

Jillian Walford agrees and said she wants to see both parties work together rather than the current status quo.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.