Voters Lack Faith in Congress
After reaching its highest level in a decade, voter confidence in members of Congress is back down.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 15% of Likely U.S. Voters rate the way Congress is doing its job as good or excellent. Fifty-six percent (56%) feel Congress is doing a poor job. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
In February, 25% of voters gave Congress positive marks, the highest level of optimism measured since November 2006. Prior to the previous survey, that figure had ranged from five percent (5%) to 23%. The percentage of voters who gave the legislators poor marks has ranged from 35% to 75% since 2006.
In the latest survey, a majority of voters (54%) think passing good legislation is a more important role for Congress than preventing bad legislation from becoming law. Thirty-nine percent (39%) feel the opposite is true.
These findings have generally remained consistent since October 2012. For a good chunk of 2011, however, voters were more evenly divided on this question.
(Want a free daily email update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 28-29, 2017 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.
Twenty-two percent (22%) of Republicans give Congress a good or excellent rating, compared to 11% of Democrats and 12% of voters not affiliated with either major political party.
Younger voters view Congress more favorably than their elders.
Twenty-six percent (26%) of voters who Strongly Approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing give Congress positive marks. Only three percent (3%) of voters who Strongly Disapprove of Trump’s job performance feel the same.
A majority of Republicans (62%) and unaffiliated voters (53%) think it’s more important for Congress to pass good legislation than to prevent bad legislation from becoming law. Democrats are evenly divided on this question, with 48% saying it’s more important for them to pass good legislation and 45% saying it’s more important for legislators to prevent bad legislation from becoming law.
Some Democrats are saying it’s time for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to go, arguing that losses in this year’s special congressional elections show that their party needs new, younger leadership. Most Democrats agree.
But most of all voters have unfavorable opinions of the top Congressional leaders in both parties.
Just 11% of Democrats said in late April that their party’s efforts to oppose President Trump during his first 100 days in office were successful.
Voters still think members of Congress aren’t above selling their vote, although they’re less likely to believe that their own local representative has.
Voters are not likely to say the average congressional representative shares their views. They’re not even convinced their own representative does.
Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily email update (it’s free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 28-29, 2017 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.
Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
To learn more about our methodology, click here.