Poll: Congressional Leaders See Negative Approval Ratings Heading into the Midterms

Congressional leaders are experiencing negative approval ratings across the board heading into the midterm elections, an Economist/YouGov survey released this week found.

The survey, taken January 8-1, 2022, among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens, asked respondents to gauge how they feel about the job performance of key congressional leaders — namely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Overall, McConnell has the worst ratings, as a majority, 56 percent, disapprove of his job performance, compared to 22 percent who approve, giving him a net negative approval of minus-34 percent. Schumer, however is also underwater, as 44 percent disapprove of his job performance as Senate Majority leader, compared to 31 percent who approve.

In the lower chamber, a strong plurality of Americans, 49 percent, disapprove of Pelosi’s job performance, compared to 36 percent who approve. Notably, Pelosi has a higher disapproval than McCarthy, who hopes to become House speaker in the event of Republicans taking the House in this year’s midterm elections. His disapprove stands at 43 percent, with 25 percent approval.

McCarthy recently sat down for an extensive On the Hill interview with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, where the Republican leader laid out the GOP strategy to take back the House this election cycle.

“I don’t think majorities are given, I think they are earned,” McCarthy said. “I think you also should be very truthful to the American public about what would you do with that majority. It’s not just being in the majority for the sake of being in the majority. You’re being in the majority to make America better.”

He continued:

What happens is if you lay out your agenda, and this agenda is—we’re listening out across the country—how do we have election reform, right? We’ve got Rodney Davis going out and listening. We have 23 states that have already improved their election law. How do we make sure the rolls are cleaned up? How do we make sure for IDs and others so that you can trust your elections going forward? We want to make sure that happens, so we continue to work on these collectively together and then we put policy together. We should show the American public so when the American public goes to vote, they can have a decision on which path do they want to go on? This one-party rule that’s brought us inflation, open borders, unsafe communities, and a supply chain where products are scarce, or do we want something that’s going to make our economy stronger, our streets safer, our border secure, and the next century the American century? Let them make a decision. But then it also holds our feet to the fire and holds us accountable. If we promise to do this, we need to go do this.”

“We’ll come out with a Commitment to America. What we’ve been doing for the last year is all the members are on task forces. We’ve been working on policy,”  McCarthy said, listing out some of the potential items, which include a GOP’s “Parents Bill of Rights,” as well as plans to secure the border and offer policies to stop inflation and hold China accountable.

“We’re just going to have the party of the ideas, the party of the parent, and what we’re going to do is you’ll find later this year we will roll out a Commitment to America—a clear contrast on what our policies are versus the one-party rule. We’ll secure the border. We’ll stop the inflation and runaway spending,” McCarthy explained.

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Matthew Perdie / Breitbart News, Jack Knudsen / Breitbart News

“We’ll make your streets safe because we don’t defund the police. We fund police. We stop this releasing everybody out on bail. You’ll find we’ll make America energy independent. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. When we do that your gasoline price will lower and your home heating price this winter, which is going up 50 percent, will be lower. And you know what? More Americans will have jobs because of it,” he added. “These are just a few of the things we’re rolling out.”