Even most Democratic voters disapprove of their leaders on Capitol Hill, according to Quinnipiac survey
Congressional Democrats’ job approval rating has plunged to a record low, with less than 20 percent of registered voters approving of their performance and a majority of Democratic voters expressing disapproval, according to a new poll.
Only 19 percent of voters are satisfied with how Democratic officials are performing in Congress—the lowest rating ever recorded by Quinnipiac University since its pollsters began asking the question in 2009. Seventy-two percent said they disapprove, while 10 percent offered no opinion, the Wednesday poll found.
Even among Democratic voters, disapproval outweighed support. Fifty-two percent said they disapprove of their congressional leaders, compared with just 39 percent who approve. Nine percent declined to answer.
The dismal numbers reflect a growing turmoil within the Democratic Party, which has struggled for months to rally behind a national leader and still lacks a clear frontrunner for the 2028 presidential race. The party’s favorability sank below 30 percent in CNN and NBC News polls earlier this year, while a Reuters/Ipsos survey last month found that 62 percent of Democratic voters say the party needs new leadership.
The party has also seen tensions between candidates, with socialist Zohran Mamdani’s surprise victory last month in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary unnerving the party establishment. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries have yet to endorse Mamdani, whose allies are reportedly plotting primary challenges against Jeffries and the city’s other Democratic incumbents.
Several top Democrats have identified the source of their frustration as recently elected DNC chairman Ken Martin. Powerful American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who publicly supported former DNC vice chair David Hogg’s efforts to launch primary challenges against the party’s incumbents, resigned last month from the DNC, saying she feels “out of step” with Martin’s leadership.
The Quinnipiac poll was released on the same day Politico reported that “Republicans are racking up more cash than Democrats as both parties prepare to fight over dozens of House battlegrounds.”
“Ten of the nearly three dozen targeted House Republicans raised at least $1 million in the quarter,” the Politico report reads. “Meanwhile, just one of the 25 GOP-targeted incumbent Democrats raised that much.”
Republicans in Congress also fared better than Democrats in the Wednesday Quinnipiac poll, with 33 percent of voters approving of their performance and 62 percent disapproving. Among Republican voters, 77 percent expressed approval of GOP lawmakers, while only 20 percent disapproved.
“If the approval numbers for Republicans are bad … then the approval numbers for Democrats can be characterized as flat out terrible,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.
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