Only eight percent of Americans believe Democrats “won” the government shutdown battle, a weekly survey from the Economist/YouGov found.
The survey asked respondents, “In your opinion, who won the shutdown battle?”
Across the board, a plurality, 39 percent, said “neither” side won the shutdown battle, followed by 35 percent who said Republicans. Only eight percent deemed Democrats the victors.
Even Democrats themselves are aware that their side lost. Only 14 percent of Democrats surveyed said Democrats won the shutdown battle, as 25 percent said Republicans and 45 percent said neither side. A slight majority, 52 percent, of Republicans said their side won the shutdown battle, although 26 percent still say neither won. Forty-six percent of independents said neither side had won, followed by 28 percent who said Republicans and just four percent who said Democrats.
The survey was taken November 15-17, 2025, among 1,549 U.S. citizens and has a +/- 3.5 percent margin of error.
The shutdown, which ended up being the longest in U.S. history, came to a screeching halt last week after the passage of a clean continuing resolution (CR) and a signature from President Donald Trump.
As Breitbart News reported:
The clean continuing resolution (CR) funds the government through the end of January and includes three of twelve appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026 — agriculture, military construction-Veterans Affairs, and legislative branch — with funding for those through the end of September.
Trump, flanked by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and cabinet officials, blasted Democrats for refusing to open government ahead of the signing.
The shutdown spanned 43 days as Democrat leadership attempted to appease their far-left base, repeatedly refusing to agree to a clean CR offered by Republicans and instead demanding $1.5 trillion in partisan spending — which included half a billion dollars to left-wing media — and healthcare for illegal immigrants.
“For the past 43 days, Democrats in Congress shut down the government of the United States in an attempt to extort American taxpayers for hundreds of billions of dollars for illegal aliens and people that came into our country illegally,” Trump said at the time.
“Today, we’re sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion, because that’s what it was. They tried to extort — the Democrats tried to extort our country,” he continued, adding further perspective.
“They caused 20,000 flights to be cancelled or delayed; they departed so many times so late. People were hurt so badly. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this one. This was a no-brainer, this was an easy extension, but they didn’t want to do it the easy way,” Trump added.
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