67% of Democrats Want More Aggressive Action: Can They Deliver?
B.L.U.F: Blue state governors and legislatures have the tools right now. When 67 percent of your own party voters report frustration and 41 percent specifically want harder pushback, that is not a warning to moderate. That is permission to act aggressively using every legal authority available. The federal system is not coming to help. State governments must act unilaterally or watch authoritarian consolidation continue unopposed. This article outlines some policies you can promote and evangelize among both the public and politicians.
A new Pew Research Center survey shows 67 percent of Democrats reporting frustration with their own party, up sharply from roughly 50 percent in both 2021 and 2019. When Pew asked frustrated Democrats why, 41 percent gave the same answer: the party has not pushed back hard enough against the Trump administration. Another 13 percent criticized Democratic leadership, and 10 percent pointed to the lack of a cohesive message. These answers share a theme. Democratic voters want their party to fight harder, not compromise more.
Republicans control the presidency and both chambers of Congress. Democrats attempting to push back through federal institutions are pushing against unified opposition with no institutional leverage. For many observers, it feels like every fight in D.C. becomes performative resistance that generates headlines but cannot pass legislation, confirm judges, or block executive actions.
Fortunately, state governments represent an arena where Democrats still hold power to enact policy rather than simply trying to slow the destruction. Democrats control California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington, showing those voters' conviction and tenacity means governing aggressively at the state level and delivering concrete victories that demonstrate which party is committed to improving people's lives. The voters saying they want harder pushback are offering their support for strategies that actually win something rather than losing with better rhetoric.
The issue preference data reveals where Democrats maintain advantages that translate into policy opportunities. Democrats still hold clear leads in public support on healthcare, environmental and climate policy, abortion, and racial justice. These advantages create permission to act aggressively on state healthcare policy, climate regulation, and reproductive rights.
Republicans maintain their advantage on crime policy at 17 percentage points (45 percent to 28 percent), which has actually grown since 2023. Additionally, republicans hold a 9-point advantage on immigration policy, essentially unchanged from two years ago. But the Republican advantage on economic policy has eroded dramatically, from 12 points in 2023 to just 3 points now (38 percent to 35 percent). This collapse suggests voters recognize Republican economic policy has failed them and creates an opening for Democrats to demonstrate better alternatives through state-level action.
State-run public health insurance programs operate when government entities directly administering and subsidizing health plans where the state bears financial responsibility for coverage, not just regulating private insurers to lower premiums. New York’s Essential Plan serves 1.7 million people with $0 monthly premiums and delivers $4,700 per year in savings per enrollee compared to private marketplace plans. Colorado’s public option enrolled 132,791 people by 2025, capturing 47% of the individual insurance market with premiums $100 per month lower than comparison states. Washington’s Cascade Care serves 94,000 enrollees with state subsidies averaging $514 per member per month, reducing net premiums to an average of $68 monthly. These programs create immediate political advantages because voters experience direct premium reductions and lower out-of-pocket costs within months of enrollment, making the benefits concrete rather than abstract policy promises.
Another valuable tool in shifting the consensus is public housing construction and it's resulting impact addressing one of blue states biggest shortcomings. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 49.7 percent of renter households, or 21 million households, spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing in 2023. The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard found that 42 million total households were cost-burdened in 2022, the highest number on record (JCHS, 2024). Housing costs have consumed increasingly large shares of income for working families, creating financial precarity that makes people vulnerable to authoritarian promises of order and security.
Vienna's municipal housing system demonstrates how public construction affects market rates. The city has maintained this approach since 1919, currently operating 220,000 municipal apartments that house approximately 25 percent of Vienna's population (Wiener Wohnen, 2021). The system finances construction through a 1 percent payroll tax split between employers and employees, generating approximately 800 million euros annually combined with federal funding (Czasny et al., 2020). Municipal housing rents in Vienna averaged 7.0 euros per square meter per month in 2020, compared to 10.3 euros for private market housing. Academic research on Vienna's system concludes that "the great number of subsidised dwellings exerts a price-dampening effect on the entire housing market" (Czasny et al., 2020, p. 488).
When a state builds enough public housing to actually affect market rates, private landlords must lower rents to compete. This uses public construction to set market floors the same way private developers currently set market ceilings. The empirical evidence exists and clearly demonstrates the public benefit and fiscal responsibility of public housing. The financing mechanisms exist through state housing authorities. The constitutional authority exists under general police powers to regulate health, safety, and welfare.
State minimum wage increases and public housing construction both address the same underlying problem. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that average households spent 32.9 percent of total expenditures on housing in 2023, with nearly half of renters spending more than 30 percent of income on housing costs alone. When housing costs this much, wage increases get absorbed by rent rather than improving material conditions. Public housing construction and minimum wage increases work together. Higher wages give workers more income. Public housing prevents landlords from capturing that income through rent increases. Both policies together create actual improvement in living standards rather than nominal wage increases that disappear into housing costs.
Republican state officials routinely implement policies that face immediate legal challenges and often lose in court. Texas defended its six-week abortion ban through multiple legal battles. Florida passed its Stop WOKE Act restricting workplace diversity training, which federal courts blocked. Republican attorneys general challenged the Affordable Care Act repeatedly despite clear Supreme Court precedent. The strategy involves pushing constitutional boundaries, forcing lengthy litigation, and sometimes winning through changed court composition or legal creativity that seemed impossible years earlier.
Democratic officials operate under different standards. They preemptively abandon policies that might face legal challenges, treating potential constitutional objections as insurmountable barriers rather than tactical obstacles. This creates asymmetry where one party tests limits aggressively while the other party accepts limits defensively.
The deeper issue involves legitimacy rather than just legality. The current federal system operates as taxation without proportional representation. Wyoming's 580,000 residents receive two senators. California's 39 million residents receive two senators. This gives Wyoming voters roughly 67 times more Senate representation per capita than California voters. The House provides somewhat more proportional representation, but even there, the cap at 435 members and state-based apportionment creates persistent distortions. The Electoral College amplifies these disparities further, making it mathematically possible to win the presidency while losing the popular vote by millions.
When the system is this structurally unjust, when small-population states can dictate policy to large-population states through institutions designed in the 18th century for a country of 4 million people, participation in that system on its existing terms becomes a form of complicity. Blue states collect federal taxes from their residents, send that money to Washington, and watch it get redistributed to red states while receiving less federal spending per capita than they contribute. California sends roughly $13 billion more in taxes than it receives in federal spending annually. New York sends approximately $23 billion more. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington all send substantially more than they receive. This creates a system where productive economies subsidize less productive economies, which would be defensible if those subsidies came with proportional political representation. Instead, the subsidized states receive disproportionate representation that they use to block policies that would benefit the states providing the subsidies.
Federal tax withholding for state-conducted audits represents one tool for disrupting this arrangement. If courts strike it down, blue states should immediately pursue the next option. When that option faces legal challenges, pursue another. When enforcement becomes the issue, make the courts and federal government actually enforce their rulings rather than complying preemptively. Republicans pioneered this approach with immigration enforcement, abortion restrictions, and voting laws. They force the federal government to spend resources on enforcement, they drag out litigation for years, and they often win through attrition or changed circumstances. The current system is unjust. The representation is skewed beyond any defensible democratic principle. Blue states should use every available tool, defend those tools through extended litigation, and force the federal government to actually enforce rulings rather than accepting theoretical legal objections as binding constraints.
The policies that will survive legal challenge most reliably are those that use authority states clearly possess: regulating commerce within their borders, setting their own tax and spending priorities, enforcing their own criminal laws, and coordinating with other states through properly structured compacts. Interstate healthcare compacts, public housing construction, and minimum wage increases all fall within this category of clearly authorized state action. These policies require no federal cooperation, face minimal legal risk, and deliver immediate material benefits.
The Pew data showing Democratic advantages on healthcare, environment, and economic policy reveal underlying opportunities. Voters already agree with Democratic positions on these issues. The frustration comes from not seeing those positions translate into material improvements in their lives. Public option and universal healthcare saves lives. Public housing construction delivers lower rents. State minimum wage increases deliver higher paychecks. These policies share several characteristics that make them effective responses to the frustration Pew measured. They do not require federal cooperation or Republican agreement. They do not require winning back Congress or the presidency. They use authority states already possess. They deliver concrete benefits people experience directly rather than abstract policy arguments. They force red states to either match the benefits or explain to their own voters why they refuse to do so.
The risk Pew implicitly measures is that frustrated voters will eventually conclude neither party can deliver material improvements and will support whoever promises the most dramatic change regardless of authoritarian tendencies. The only effective counter to that risk is actually delivering the material improvements. Rhetorical resistance without policy results confirms voter cynicism. Policy results that improve daily life give voters reason to maintain support for democratic institutions.
Blue state governors and legislatures have the tools right now. When 67 percent of your own party voters report frustration and 41 percent specifically want harder pushback, that is not a warning to moderate. That is permission to act aggressively using every tool authority available. The federal system is not coming to help. State governments must act unilaterally or allow authoritarian consolidation to be completed.
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References
Blumberg, L. J., Holahan, J., McMorrow, S., & Simpson, M. (2020). *Estimating the impact of a public option or capping provider payment rates*. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/estimating-the-impact-of-a-public-option-or-capping-provider-payment-rates.pdf
Congressional Budget Office. (2021). *A public option for health insurance in the nongroup marketplaces: Key design considerations and implications* (Publication No. 57020). https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57020
Czasny, K., Kössl, G., & Navratil, F. (2020). How much state and how much market? Comparing social housing in Berlin and Vienna. *German Politics*, *30*(4), 477-495. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2020.1771696
Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. (2024). *The state of the nation's housing 2024*. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/state-nations-housing-2024
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 42 U.S.C. § 18053 (2010).
Pew Research Center. (2025, October 30). *A year ahead of the midterms, Americans' dim views of both parties*. https://pewrsr.ch/4og0Jft
Pogue, S. (2025, January). A blast from the past: Dusting off ACA Section 1333 compacts. *Center on Health Insurance Reforms Blog*. https://chirblog.org/a-blast-from-the-past-dusting-off-aca-section-1333-compacts/
Pramuk, J. (2025, June). To fight Trump's funding freezes, states propose a new gambit: Withholding federal payments. *NBC News*. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trumps-funding-freezes-states-new-gambit-withholding-federal-money-rcna215212
Teotia, A., Arnold, D. R., & Scheffler, R. M. (2025, January 15). Can public option plans improve affordability? Insights from Colorado. *Health Affairs Forefront*. https://doi.org/10.1377/forefront.20250113.844529
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024, December 19). *Net international migration drives highest U.S. population growth in decades* [Press release]. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/population-estimates-international-migration.html
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024, September 12). *Nearly half of renter households are cost-burdened, proportions differ by race* [Press release]. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/renter-households-cost-burdened-race.html
Wiener Wohnen. (2021). *Municipal housing in Vienna: History, facts & figures*. City of Vienna. https://www.wienerwohnen.at/dms/w
orkspace/SpacesStore/6e498f59-7962-48ee-ba88-0f9ed9ce7b10/WW10720-Wiener-Gemeindebau-WEB-english.pdf
Oregon is also controlled by Ds and the Governor just acted positively in protecting fragile lands and in providing food support.
For example: In New Mexico, the free childcare program Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham championed started this month. It will save families around $12,000 a year. This is the first state in the US to offer free universal child care, and it shouldn’t be the last.
Grisham said New Mexico’s economy is “overperforming … You can’t stay that course unless you have a robust early childhood and child care setting … This is about investing in mothers and fathers, being able to go back to the workforce.” (Dworkin)