A Rasmussen Reports survey released Wednesday found that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been rated the least popular leader in Congress — quite an achievement, considering how much competition there is.
Voters were asked to rate their impressions of the top leaders in Congress, including House Speaker Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Sixty percent of respondents indicated they viewed her unfavorably. Of those, 51 percent view her “very” unfavorably.
(McCarthy fared the best of all, garnering an unfavorable rating of 34 percent. His favorability was higher, at 42 percent.)
Pelosi’s numbers unsurprisingly vary along party lines: 64 percent of Democrats have a favorable view of her, compared to 13 percent of Republicans and 25 percent of independents.
However, Rasmussen finds that partisanship “does not fully explain Pelosi’s remarkable unpopularity”:
As might be expected, 79% of Republicans have a Very Unfavorable impression of Pelosi, but so do 21% of Democrats. The real difference, however, is that 57% of voters not affiliated with either major party have a Very Unfavorable view of Pelosi. By comparison, Schumer provokes less intense dislike, with 67% of Republicans, 18% of Democrats and 48% of unaffiliated voters giving him a Very Unfavorable rating.