Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s grip on the Republican leadership is shakier than ever, with a new Harvard-Harris poll showing that a majority of GOP voters want McConnell to resign.
The poll, provided to the Hill, found that 56 percent of Republicans want McConnell out. It also found that he has the worst approval of any politician in the survey, with a meager approval rating of just 16 percent.
The poll also found the Republican Party, while holding both chambers of Congress and the White House, has a rock-bottom approval rating as it fails to deliver on President Trump’s agenda and their own campaign promises, such as repealing Obamacare and cracking down on illegal immigration.
Just 29 percent of voters approve of the job Republican lawmakers are doing, with only 53 percent of GOP voters approving of their job. The Democrats meanwhile, have a 39 percent approval rating, and it viewed favorably by 68 percent of voters.
The lackluster support from their own voters points to the Republican Party’s inability to communicate and advocate for the views of their own voters, instead of those of big business and special interests.
The Harvard-Harris poll found that only 39 percent of Republicans think their leaders represent their views, and 40 percent said that the leadership holds views “more liberal” than their own. A massive 76 percent said their leaders are out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Republican voters.
The poll will make painful reading for McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and shows that the political ground is fertile for the political revolution being brewed by Breitbart News Executive Chairman and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Bannon is seeking to put forward primary challengers to establishment Republicans, with his litmus test for Senate challengers including a promise to vote against McConnell as majority leader if elected. Polls showing McConnell’s deep unpopularity among Republican voters are likely to fuel Bannon’s claims that McConnell is out of touch and needs to be removed.
Bannon’s numbers are strong in the Harvard-Harris poll, with 61 percent of Republicans saying they support Bannon’s push, with 56 percent saying his efforts will make the party stronger. Trump’s approval rating, meanwhile, stands at 80 percent among Republicans and 42 percent among voters at large.
“The Republican Party is at war with its traditional leadership and Trump and Bannon are winning in this unprecedented schism,” Harvard-Harris Poll co-director Mark Penn told the Hill.
The Harvard-Harris Poll online survey of 2,159 registered voters was conducted between Oct. 14 and Oct. 18.
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
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