Regardless of whether they’re Democrat or Republican, male or female, young or old, Black or White, more voters blame Democrats, not Republicans, if there’s a federal government shutdown because a budget deal isn’t struck by midnight Friday.
A Democrat filibuster led by Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is currently preventing a Senate vote on a continuing resolution (CR) for funding passed by the House and endorsed by President Donald Trump. Ironically, Democrats say they’re willing to shut down the federal government in order to prevent federal government cut-backs by Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But, Democrats’ stonewalling appears to be backfiring – even with Democrats – a new Rasmussen survey, reveals.
“If there is a government shutdown, who will be most to blame?” Rasmussen asked U.S. likely voters in a national survey conducted March 9-11.
By a margin of nearly two-to-one, more voters lay the blame on Democrats in Congress than blame their Republican colleagues (41%-24%). Another 26% of voters say that President Donald Trump deserves the most blame, if a budget deal isn’t reached and the government shuts down. Nine percent say they’re “not sure.”
Notably, government employees blame Democrats in Congress over Republicans by a 26-percentage point margin (49%-23%). Each of the other employment cohorts prefer to blame Democrats by a 20-point margin.
By voter demographic, Democrats are blamed more than Republicans across the board:
Gender:
- Male: 42%-28%
- Female: 41%-21%
Age:
- 18-39: 40%-24%
- 40-64: 40%-24%
- 65+: 47%-26%
Race:
- White: 39%-26%
- Black: 41%-22%
- Hispanic: 43%-25%
- Other: 61%-11%
Party:
- Democrat: 31%-28%
- Republican: 55%-20%
- Other: 38%-24%
Income:
- Under $30K: 31%-26%
- $30-50K: 45%-22%
- $50-100K: 45%-25%
- $100-200K: 36%-23%
- Over $200K: 52%-26%
Employment:
- Government: 49%-23%
- Entrepreneur: 44%-24%
- Private Co.: 43%-23%
- Retired: 43%-23%
Republican voters are, by far, more likely to blame a shutdown on Democrats in Congress (55%) than on either Republicans (20%) or Trump (15%).
However, more Democrat voters blame Pres. Trump (33%) than blame either Congressional Democrats (31%) or Republicans (28%).