Focus groups run by a Democratic Party strategist show a consistent response when asked to describe Republicans and Democrats using animals, according to a report this past weekend by the New York Times that also reported on a $20 million proposed study to help Democrats understand young male voters they lost to President Donald Trump in last year’s election.
Excerpt from NY Times report by Shane Goldmacher:
One longtime Democratic researcher has a technique she leans on when nudging voters to share their deepest, darkest feelings about politics. She asks them to compare America’s two major parties to animals.
After around 250 focus groups of swing voters, a few patterns have emerged, said the researcher, Anat Shenker-Osorio. Republicans are seen as “apex predators,” like lions, tigers and sharks — beasts that take what they want when they want it. Democrats are typically tagged as tortoises, slugs or sloths: slow, plodding, passive.
So Ms. Shenker-Osorio perked up earlier this year when a Democratic man in Georgia suggested that a very different kind of animal symbolized her party.
“A deer,” he said, “in headlights.”
The man had more to say.
“You stand there and you see the car coming, but you’re going to stand there and get hit with it anyway.”
Tuesday morning, CNN host John Berman asked Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz about the Times report on the focus group comparisons, and it did not go well.
SUPER AWKWARD: CNN host presses Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to respond to voters thoughts that the Democrat party is like a “deer in headlights” — She LASHES OUT instead of taking voters’ concerns seriously.
Did she not understand the question? pic.twitter.com/a0MLkK7KmI
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 27, 2025
CNN transcript excerpt:
BERMAN: Our friends over at The New York Times are doing a series periodically looking into the Democratic Party and the challenges facing the Democrats are you try to run into the next election with some kind of momentum.
Shane Goldmacher, among others, is doing this research and he talks about it in an article over the weekend — a focus group led by a longtime Democratic researcher who asked some 250 people to describe or compare each party to an animal. And I want to read you what this found.
“Republicans are seen as ‘apex predators’ like lions, tigers, and sharks — beasts that take what they want it. Democrats are typically tagged as tortoises, slugs or sloths: slow, plodding, passive.” And then a little bit later there was a response that said the Democrats were like “deer in headlights.”
How is it that you think that the Democratic Party has earned these descriptions?
SCHULTZ: John, I’m not focused on the animals that some New York Times reporter compares the political parties to. My constituents are human beings. And the human beings that I represent are facing devastating health care cuts. The most significant health care cuts that have been ever handed down by any administration. Almost 14 million people will lose their Medicaid coverage. Many hundreds of thousands more when you add the cuts to the Affordable Care Act.
I represent the state that has the largest Affordable Care Act signups every single year. These are folks who — they can get their health care insurance covered because of the Affordable Care Act, because of Medicaid. And as someone who knows that when you don’t have your health you don’t have anything, I know how vital that is.
So I’m focused on the humans I represent, not animal comparisons.
BERMAN: I will tell you there was — it was the voters who were making the comparison with animals, and this was a focus group. It wasn’t The New York Times reporter coming up with these labels. This was a Democratic-led focus group to try to figure out perceptions of the parties. SCHULTZ: John, you said they were asked to compare the parties, so they were prompted to compare the parties to animals. That is ridiculous. That’s — I’ve watched a lot of focus groups, and I know that the people that I represent want me fighting for the humans — the families that I represent.
They don’t want Republicans transferring more and more wealth to many more billionaires. They want to make sure that like what Democrats did under Joe Biden, under a Democratic majority, we ensure that we cut taxes for the middle class — folks who put that money right back into the economy when they buy refrigerators with the windfall and other kinds of — other kinds of expenses.
We make sure that we reduce prescription drugs prices. We started to bring CHIP manufacturing back home. We passed the largest infrastructure and investment act in history and now those jobs we’re seeing come to fruition with rebuilding our infrastructure.
That’s what people want their government to do for them. They don’t want a lawless dictator of a president who hires antisemites and who then acts like he’s trying to fight to protect the Jewish community. The hypocrisy in this — in this administration is appalling — appalling.
BERMAN: Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, thank you so much for talking with us this morning — appreciate it — Sara.
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