January 14, 2026

Dear Executive Director Merz, 

The Democratic Party’s major overperformances in all five House special elections in 2025 show the American people are increasingly ready to turn the page on a president and a Republican-led trifecta in our nation’s capital that has failed to address their needs and has exacerbated the affordability crisis through their cuts to critical domestic programs, including healthcare and food assistance, while at the same time finding a seemingly endless budget for militarism overseas. Since President Trump took office, Americans have suffered from rising prices and unemployment, and a rising authoritarianism in the form of rogue federal agents terrorizing our neighborhoods and new threats to free speech, especially protected speech for Palestinian rights. At the same time, bigoted rhetoric from senior Trump administration officials such as Stephen Miller and administration allies such as conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer has fueled hate against immigrant, Black, Latino, Jewish, and Muslim communities. Americans are looking for leaders who will stand for them against these attacks on their livelihoods, freedoms, and security. 

For the past year, Democrats have investigated why they underperformed in the 2024 elections. Post-election analyses have repeatedly found that lower voter turnout among the Democratic Party’s base, especially young people and communities of color, opened the door for Trump to win not only the Electoral College, but the popular vote as well. Democratic leadership was unable to break through with an affirmative message for how to lower prices and battle inflation, a top concern for most voters. Despite mass protests and demands for a change in Democrats’ policy toward Israel and Gaza - protests led by their own base of voters - the Biden administration continued to supply Israel with billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded weapons in violation of US law, and failed to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. Our polling before the election, which was provided directly to the Harris campaign with a request for continued dialogue, showed that continuing this disastrous policy choice would be a serious liability for Harris in the states Democrats needed to win. However, that data and our request for dialogue was ignored by the campaign. Our polling immediately after the election subsequently found the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to address widespread concerns about Israel’s violence in Gaza was the top factor for Biden 2020 voters who cast a ballot for someone besides Harris in 2024, including in the key swing states of Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Over the course of 2025, we engaged with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to suggest changes, including  to voter tracking in order to properly document and engage with voters concerned about US policy toward Palestine/Israel. We are grateful that the DNC staff leading the post-election survey invited us to present our polling data as part of their fact-finding research, took our concerns seriously, and engaged in a dialogue. We are confident in saying that internal DNC data corroborated our conclusion that Biden's support for Israel cost Democrats votes in 2024, and have concerns that the DNC's suppression of this report is motivated, at least in part, by their finding that support for Israel is an electoral liability for the party.

Our polling over the course of 2025, which matches surveys from other reputable nonpartisan pollsters including Pew, Gallup, Quinnipiac, and more, shows voter opinion has continued to rapidly shift away from the pro-Israel status quo among voters in both parties. Our September 2025 poll of Democratic voters found 72% believe Israel is committing genocide - and other surveys pin that number as high as 77%. 75% of Democrats want to cut off weapons to Israel, as do 66% of independents. So far, Democratic Members of Congress have failed to properly represent their own voters, although progress is being made in the right direction. Just over half of Senate Democrats voted to block Trump’s weapons giveaways to Israel in July, and around 3 in 10 House Democrats have cosponsored the Block the Bombs Act to restrict major weapons to Israel.

Perhaps most importantly, just 64% of Democrats in our poll said they would support a Democrat who supports unconditional support for Israel against a Republican with the same view, while 91% say they would support a Democrat who calls for restricting weapons to Israel against a Republican who advocates for unconditional support to Israel. 

Conversely, our poll of Republicans released in December 2025 found these same views are growing within the Republican party, especially with winnable crossover voters. While just 4% of Republicans say they would support a Democrat who supports unconditional funding for Israel over a Republican with the same view, 17% of Republicans say they would support a Democrat who advocates for limiting support to Israel to focus on domestic needs over a Republican who supports unconditional support to Israel. 65% of Republicans - and 74% of Republicans under age 45 - also agree that taxpayer funds used to supply Israel with weapons should be reinvested in lowering the cost of healthcare. 

These results taken together strongly suggest that President Trump’s munificent funding for Israel, along with Republicans’ cuts to affordable healthcare, will be a major liability in 2026 - if Democratic leadership is willing to take advantage. Later this week, we will be releasing our first TV ad of 2026 in Rep. Mike Lawler’s district, informing his constituents of his votes to provide Israel with billions of dollars in weapons while voting for healthcare cuts for them. We plan to air more ads soon aimed at other vulnerable Republicans who have also taken those votes. 

We look forward to engaging with you to ensure that the pivotal lessons from the 2024 election are not repeated, and instead incorporated into the Democratic Party’s strategy in the months ahead and before the pivotal midterm general elections. 

Sincerely,
Margaret DeReus