Fewer Voters Say Congress Doing ‘Poor’ Job

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 25% of Likely U.S. voters believe that Congress is doing a good or excellent job, up from 19% in April.

Forty-five percent (45%) now rate Congress as doing a poor job, which is not only down from 53% in April, but the first time since 2019 that less than a majority of voters rated congressional performance as poor. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Forty-two percent (42%) of voters believe most members of Congress are corrupt, up slightly since we last asked this question a decade ago.

Thirty-three percent (33%) don’t think most members of Congress are corrupt, and another 25% are not sure.

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The survey of 900 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on December 14-15 and 18, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Democrats (36%) are less likely to believe most members of Congress are corrupt, compared to Republicans (44%) or voters not affiliated with either major party (49%).

Similarly, while 39% of Democrats think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, only 19% of Republicans and 17% of unaffiliated voters agree. Majorities of both Republicans (60%) and unaffiliated voters (53%) give Congress a poor performance rating, as do 23% of Democrats.

Fewer whites (25%) than black voters (25%) or other minorities (28%) rate Congress as doing a good or excellent job. Forty-nine percent (49%) of whites, 31% of black voters and 40% of other minorities give Congress a poor rating. 

Men (50%) are more likely than women voters (40%) to rate Congress as doing a poor job, but women voters are slightly more likely to think most members of Congress are corrupt.

Voters under 40 rate Congress higher than do their elders, but voters 65 and older are less likely to believe most Congress are corrupt.

Voters with annual incomes above $100,000 rate Congress as doing a better job. A majority of voters with incomes below $50,000 a year think most members of Congress are corrupt.

President Joe Biden’s strongest supporters are least likely to believe Congress is corrupt. Among voters who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 22% think most members of Congress are corrupt, whereas among those who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, 59% say most members of Congress are corrupt.

Optimism about America’s future has declined sharply in the past two years, and nearly half of voters think President Biden has made it worse.

By more than a 2-to-1 margin, voters approve Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to leave the Democratic Party, and overwhelmingly agree with her that the political system is “broken.”

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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