Here’s something fun to look at this morning. Morning Consults conducted a massive poll to see how constituents feel about their U.S. Senators. They discovered that Bernie Sanders is more popular among his own constituents than any other senator. He has a very impressive 83%-13% approve/disapprove rating with Vermonters.
You can sort and rank the results in a variety of ways. For example, you can look at who has the highest favorables or the highest unfavorables or at who has the biggest net positives or negatives. You’ll get a very different impression depending on which of these you choose.
For example, troubled Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey who is facing 14 criminal counts, including eight for bribery, has the lowest approval rating (37%) of any member of the Senate. But with only a 36% disapproval rating, he’s actually plus-one in net approval.
Mitch McConnell, has the highest disapproval rating (52%), and an approval rating of only 38%, thereby leading the way in the “less popular than gonorrhea” category with a net disapproval of fourteen percent.
The most troubling result for the Republicans is that several of their senators who are up for reelection next year are near the bottom in the approval ratings. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is in 97th place, and Mark Kirk of Illinois and Rob Portman of Ohio are tied in 91st place. Richard Burr of North Carolina is in 88th place and Roy Blunt of Missouri is in 84th place. Meanwhile, John McCain is tied with Pat Roberts of Kansas in 2nd place for highest disapproval, and Rand Paul is tied with Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire in eighth place.
Some other things of note: the voters in Vermont, Wyoming, Minnesota, and Maine basically love their senators. The voters in Kansas and Arizona basically hate theirs.
Other than Bernie Sanders, the least unpopular senators are John Hoeven of North Dakota, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Susan Collins of Maine, and Tim Scott of South Carolina. If you look at the most popular, you drop Tim Scott from the Top 5 and add Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
One thing that is noticeable to me from these results is that there isn’t any strong correlation between how much media attention a senator gets and how popular or unpopular they are. Some of the most popular senators are rarely seen on television, and the same is true of some of the most unpopular. The people of Kansas seem to be unhappy with Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran because they’re unhappy with their Republican governor, Sam Brownback, who recently was rated the least popular governor in the country in a different Morning Consult survey.
So, how popular are your senators?
This is a handy-dandy chart. To pluck out a few:
Vitter – approve 47% disapprove 36%. Might have been good enough to win re-election in 2016, but not nearly good enough to move to the Governor’s office against a very strong DEM opponent.
WI – Ron Johnson – approve 38% disapprove 35%. He should be toast considering that WI is purplish.
NH – Kelly Ayotte – approve 58% disapprove 32%. She’s going to be difficult to unseat.
KS – Roberts – 41/41%. iirc, his numbers in 2014 were similar, but it’s Kansas and the DEM party there is moribund.
KY – McConnell – 38/52. Those were the sort of numbers that suckered Democrats into squandering dollars and energy in 2014. IOW, in “red” or “reddish” (like KY) states, generic DEM doesn’t beat a loathed GOP.
2014 newbies — Gardner (CO), Ernst (IO), and Tillis (NC) and DEM Peters (MI) appear to be weak. That appearance may be an artifact of being new in office and not having done anything.
Also note Warner (VA) 58/24% and he just barely won re-election in 2014 against a never-elected to any office with negative charisma candidate.
Solid observations.
I’d add that as weak as the Dems are in Kansas, the GOP is at least that divided.
Can’t beat something with nothing.
Would be interesting to see if a solid, populist progressive candidate in KS could tap into those old roots in the state. How that is done without the confounding variable of racism is an open question.
(Emphasis mine.) There’s your reason right there.
Sorry — that one year isn’t explanatory in this instance. Warner did nothing before the 2014 elections or after to make his numbers shift that much against a suck-ass opponent.
I think RT is identifying the big turnout problem Dem candidates had in 2014; that problem isn’t deeply controlled by likeable/unlikeable polls. And we would agree that Warner doesn’t do much of anything in office or on the stump to excite base turnout.
One thing that is noticeable to me from these results is that there isn’t any strong correlation between how much media attention a senator gets and how popular or unpopular they are. Some of the most popular senators are rarely seen on television, and the same is true of some of the most unpopular.
You mean appearing on national TV, right? Have no idea how often any of these people appear on local TV, if local TV even bothers to cover them.
Dunno, but I bet McCain is nearly reversed (still) in his approval in the District.
Billmon on Clare Foran at The Atlantic: The Lifelong Republicans Who Love Bernie Sanders
Probably goes a long to explaining the approve/disapprove numbers for many Senators.
I’m shocked at the numbers here in Missouri. McCaskill is despised by Republicans and generally disliked my Dems because, as Charlie Pierce characterizes her “I feel strongly both ways about that issue.” And yet, her favorables are higher than Blunt’s.
McCaskill is in her second term — more time for both her approval and disapproval numbers to climb. In a state like MO, difficult for her to get the former much higher than 48%, but good enough as long as there’s a decent spread between her approval/disapproval.
Like Mike Lee (UT), Blunt appears to be in okay shape.
Well, Claire’s unlikeables are pretty high. And with her doing things like being on speed dial with Morning Joe’s producers and doing her bipartisan shtick there, I’ll place myself among those who dislike her.
My Senators, Feinstein and Boxer, are not terribly popular. In the case of Feinstein, I agree- her fearmongering pisses me off big time.
When Kamala Harris gets in there in 2017, I bet she drives a much better likeable/unlikable rating in her first term than what we see here from Ernst and Tillis. Their wins in 2014 were infuriating; good to see they’re not making their States very happy.