July 11, 2017 at 5:00 am ET
The latest edition of Morning Consult’s Senator Approval Rankings is available here.
If Americans were feeling optimistic about their senators at the dawn of the new era of a Republican-controlled federal government, many are souring on those elected officials as the 115th Congress rolls on, according to Morning Consult’s new Senator Approval Rankings.
More than half of all senators saw negative swings in net approval outside of the surveys’ margins of error in their respective states. By comparison, over 20 senators saw their net approval rating decrease in the first quarter of the year from the 2016 pre-election rankings.
The rankings are based on more than 140,000 interviews with registered voters nationwide conducted from April 1 through June 18. Full methodology is available here.
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- Don't Know/Undecided
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- Disapprove
- Don't Know/Undecided
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Some of the biggest drops in net approval came in unexpected places, with Republican senators in reliably red states and Democrats in safely blue ones seeing large drops.
In Oklahoma, GOP Sens. James Lankford and Jim Inhofe saw their net approval ratings slide 7 points and 11 points, respectively, since the first quarter. Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake also saw negative swings — McCain by 12 points, Flake by 14 points — and Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman of Arkansas saw 9-point and 8-point dips, respectively.
Plus: Only One Senator Up for Re-Election in 2018 Has Underwater Approval Rating
On the Democratic side of the ledger, it’s Rhode Island voters who were most likely to appear embittered. Sen. Jack Reed saw his net approval rating drop 20 points, as did Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Roughly three in five Ocean State voters had previously approved of both senators, but for Whitehouse the share expressing approval slid below 50 percent in the new rankings. It was a similar story in Delaware, where the share of voters approving of Sens. Chris Coons and Tom Carper dropped from 58 percent and 65 percent to 52 percent and 58 percent, respectively, while their disapproval ratings rose.
Three senators — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Flake & McCain — were viewed negatively by a plurality of voters in their states. McConnell, consistently America’s least popular senator in the Morning Consult rankings, saw his net rating drop 4 points: Forty-one percent of Bluegrass State voters approve of him, while 48 percent do not. And Flake, who is considered one of the most vulnerable Republicans up for re-election, has the approval of 37 percent of Arizonans, compared with 45 percent who disapprove of his job performance.
While many senators saw net drops in approval, some managed to burnish their images in the eyes of their constituents. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) saw the biggest jump (11 points), followed by North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven (7 points) and Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana (8 points), who’s considered a top GOP target ahead of the 2018 midterms. GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Richard Burr of North Carolina each gained 4 points.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remained the most popular senator in the country, with 75 percent of Vermonters approving of his job performance and 21 percent disapproving.
Sen. Luther Strange, who replaced fellow Alabama Republican and now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this year, is the only new addition to the list. Strange, who is working to fend off GOP challengers leading up to an Aug. 15 special election primary, has the approval of 44 percent of Yellowhammer State voters, compared with 30 percent who disapprove of him and 26 percent who didn’t know or had no opinion.
| State | Senator | Approve | Disapprove | Don't Know/No Opinion | MOE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Luther Strange | 44% | 30% | 26% | 2% |
| Alabama | Richard Shelby | 53% | 29% | 18% | 2% |
| Alaska | Lisa Murkowski | 55% | 37% | 9% | 6% |
| Alaska | Dan Sullivan | 51% | 35% | 14% | 6% |
| Arizona | John McCain | 43% | 47% | 9% | 2% |
| Arizona | Jeff Flake | 37% | 45% | 18% | 2% |
| Arkansas | Tom Cotton | 51% | 32% | 17% | 3% |
| Arkansas | John Boozman | 49% | 28% | 23% | 3% |
| California | Dianne Feinstein | 51% | 33% | 15% | 1% |
| California | Kamala Harris | 51% | 24% | 25% | 1% |
| Colorado | Cory Gardner | 48% | 29% | 23% | 2% |
| Colorado | Michael Bennet | 49% | 28% | 23% | 2% |
| Connecticut | Richard Blumenthal | 56% | 34% | 10% | 3% |
| Connecticut | Christopher Murphy | 53% | 33% | 14% | 3% |
| Delaware | Chris Coons | 52% | 31% | 17% | 4% |
| Delaware | Thomas Carper | 58% | 26% | 16% | 4% |
| Florida | Marco Rubio | 49% | 37% | 13% | 1% |
| Florida | Bill Nelson | 53% | 25% | 22% | 1% |
| Georgia | David Perdue | 53% | 26% | 20% | 1% |
| Georgia | John Isakson | 51% | 26% | 23% | 1% |
| Hawaii | Mazie Hirono | 67% | 23% | 11% | 5% |
| Hawaii | Brian Schatz | 69% | 21% | 10% | 5% |
| Idaho | Michael Crapo | 58% | 29% | 14% | 4% |
| Idaho | James Risch | 53% | 25% | 23% | 4% |
| Illinois | Richard Durbin | 45% | 36% | 18% | 1% |
| Illinois | Tammy Duckworth | 48% | 30% | 21% | 1% |
| Indiana | Todd Young | 48% | 28% | 24% | 2% |
| Indiana | Joe Donnelly | 53% | 25% | 23% | 2% |
| Iowa | Charles Grassley | 52% | 35% | 13% | 3% |
| Iowa | Joni Ernst | 47% | 35% | 18% | 3% |
| Kansas | Pat Roberts | 43% | 35% | 23% | 3% |
| Kansas | Jerry Moran | 45% | 30% | 24% | 3% |
| Kentucky | Mitch McConnell | 41% | 48% | 10% | 2% |
| Kentucky | Rand Paul | 50% | 38% | 13% | 2% |
| Louisiana | Bill Cassidy | 51% | 27% | 23% | 2% |
| Louisiana | John Kennedy | 54% | 24% | 23% | 2% |
| Maine | Susan Collins | 65% | 26% | 9% | 4% |
| Maine | Angus King | 62% | 25% | 12% | 4% |
| Maryland | Chris Van Hollen | 51% | 23% | 26% | 2% |
| Maryland | Benjamin Cardin | 53% | 21% | 25% | 2% |
| Massachusetts | Elizabeth Warren | 57% | 35% | 9% | 2% |
| Massachusetts | Edward Markey | 55% | 22% | 24% | 2% |
| Michigan | Debbie Stabenow | 45% | 37% | 18% | 1% |
| Michigan | Gary Peters | 38% | 29% | 33% | 1% |
| Minnesota | Alan Franken | 56% | 33% | 11% | 2% |
| Minnesota | Amy Klobuchar | 59% | 28% | 13% | 2% |
| Mississippi | Thad Cochran | 53% | 28% | 19% | 3% |
| Mississippi | Roger Wicker | 51% | 24% | 24% | 3% |
| Missouri | Claire McCaskill | 46% | 38% | 15% | 2% |
| Missouri | Roy Blunt | 46% | 37% | 17% | 2% |
| Montana | Jon Tester | 50% | 39% | 11% | 5% |
| Montana | Steve Daines | 53% | 30% | 17% | 5% |
| Nebraska | Deb Fischer | 49% | 33% | 18% | 3% |
| Nebraska | Benjamin Sasse | 52% | 28% | 21% | 3% |
| Nevada | Catherine Cortez Masto | 44% | 33% | 23% | 3% |
| Nevada | Dean Heller | 41% | 33% | 26% | 3% |
| New Hampshire | Maggie Hassan | 52% | 33% | 15% | 4% |
| New Hampshire | Jeanne Shaheen | 54% | 31% | 15% | 4% |
| New Jersey | Robert Menendez | 39% | 38% | 23% | 2% |
| New Jersey | Cory Booker | 50% | 32% | 18% | 2% |
| New Mexico | Martin Heinrich | 48% | 30% | 22% | 4% |
| New Mexico | Tom Udall | 53% | 27% | 20% | 4% |
| New York | Charles Schumer | 59% | 29% | 12% | 1% |
| New York | Kirsten Gillibrand | 53% | 23% | 23% | 1% |
| North Carolina | Richard Burr | 45% | 32% | 22% | 1% |
| North Carolina | Thom Tillis | 41% | 31% | 28% | 1% |
| North Dakota | Heidi Heitkamp | 60% | 28% | 12% | 6% |
| North Dakota | John Hoeven | 66% | 17% | 17% | 6% |
| Ohio | Sherrod Brown | 50% | 29% | 22% | 1% |
| Ohio | Robert Portman | 50% | 28% | 23% | 1% |
| Oklahoma | James Inhofe | 50% | 31% | 19% | 2% |
| Oklahoma | James Lankford | 52% | 26% | 21% | 2% |
| Oregon | Ron Wyden | 61% | 24% | 16% | 2% |
| Oregon | Jeff Merkley | 57% | 24% | 19% | 2% |
| Pennsylvania | Patrick Toomey | 45% | 36% | 19% | 1% |
| Pennsylvania | Robert Casey | 46% | 31% | 22% | 1% |
| Rhode Island | Sheldon Whitehouse | 46% | 35% | 18% | 5% |
| Rhode Island | John Reed | 51% | 29% | 21% | 5% |
| South Carolina | Lindsey Graham | 48% | 38% | 14% | 2% |
| South Carolina | Tim Scott | 59% | 20% | 21% | 2% |
| South Dakota | Mike Rounds | 62% | 29% | 10% | 5% |
| South Dakota | John Thune | 64% | 26% | 10% | 5% |
| Tennessee | Bob Corker | 52% | 29% | 18% | 2% |
| Tennessee | Lamar Alexander | 52% | 29% | 18% | 2% |
| Texas | Ted Cruz | 55% | 32% | 14% | 1% |
| Texas | John Cornyn | 49% | 25% | 26% | 1% |
| Utah | Orrin Hatch | 52% | 38% | 10% | 3% |
| Utah | Mike Lee | 54% | 29% | 17% | 3% |
| Vermont | Patrick Leahy | 66% | 25% | 9% | 7% |
| Vermont | Bernard Sanders | 75% | 21% | 4% | 7% |
| Virginia | Timothy Kaine | 51% | 35% | 14% | 2% |
| Virginia | Mark Warner | 58% | 28% | 14% | 2% |
| Washington | Patty Murray | 56% | 30% | 14% | 2% |
| Washington | Maria Cantwell | 54% | 28% | 19% | 2% |
| West Virginia | Joe Manchin | 57% | 31% | 12% | 3% |
| West Virginia | Shelley Capito | 56% | 26% | 17% | 3% |
| Wisconsin | Tammy Baldwin | 42% | 38% | 19% | 2% |
| Wisconsin | Ron Johnson | 43% | 37% | 19% | 2% |
| Wyoming | John Barrasso | 56% | 18% | 25% | 7% |
| Wyoming | Michael Enzi | 57% | 17% | 26% | 7% |
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