America’s Most and Least Popular Senators

As the 115th Congress came to a close, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was dethroned from his perch as America’s least popular senator – a first in Morning Consult polling.

According to the latest edition of Morning Consult’s Senator Approval Rankings, the sixth-term Kentucky Republican was trumped for the lowest spot on the list by now-former Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who lost her re-election campaign in November, and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who opted not to run again amid a war of words with President Donald Trump.

The latest rankings – based on surveys of 416,853 registered voters across the country conducted Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2018 (see methodology here) – found McConnell’s net approval increased 10 percentage points since the third quarter of 2018, with 38 percent of Kentucky voters approving of his job performance and 47 percent disapproving. The fourth quarter marks McConnell’s best showing since the second quarter of 2017 as he prepares for an expected re-election campaign in 2020. (Net approval is the share of voters who approve of a senator minus the share of voters who disapprove. Approval and disapproval figures are rounded.)