Michigan's Two U.S. Senators Have Sub-Par Job Ratings

By Eli Yokley
Morning Consult
October 31, 2017

Michigan’s two U.S. Senators — Democrats Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters — have job ratings that are “above water,” meaning that more Michiganders approve of the job they’re doing than disapprove.

That’s the good news for the two solons. The bad news is that both Peters and Stabenow have job ratings that are in the “bottom half” of rankings of all of the nation’s 100 U.S. Senators. And Peters continues to suffer the ignominy of being the “least known” member of the Senate. After nearly three years in office, more than a third of Michiganders don’t even know who he is.

Heading into her 2018 re-election effort, Stabenow can claim 45% of Michiganders approve of the job she’s doing, with 36% disapproving and a fifth (19%) not even knowing who she is after 45 years of serving in elected office. For Peters, it’s even worse in terms of being “faceless” in the state he represents, Michigan — 37% approve of the job he’s doing, with 28% disapproving, but a whopping 35% have no idea who he is. No other U.S. Senator has an “unknown” factor as large as Peters.

Elsewhere, the most popular and least popular U.S. Senators are what you might expect — Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is the most popular, and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is the least.

Along with President Donald Trump’s declining support across the country, approval ratings for nearly all senators went down in their home states during the third quarter. The period overlapped with several unsuccessful Republican-led attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

According to Morning Consult’s latest Senator Approval Rankings – compiled from a poll of 255,120 registered voters in 50 states from July 1 to Sept. 30 – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is yet again America’s least popular senator. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remains America’s most popular senator. Full methodology available here.

1

Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

71% 22%
2

Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

67% 22%
3

John Hoeven (R-ND)

63% 20%
4

Susan Collins (R-ME)

62% 30%
5

Angus King (I-ME)

61% 27%
6

Brian Schatz (D-HI)

60% 22%
7

Mazie Hirono (D-HI)

60% 24%
8

Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

59% 26%
9

Ron Wyden (D-OR)

56% 23%
10

John Thune (R-SD)

56% 31%

In Kentucky, one-third of voters approve of McConnell’s job performance, while 55 percent of voters said they disapprove — more than any other senator. In Vermont, 71 percent of voters approve of Sanders, while 22 percent disapprove of Sanders, who ran a stronger-than-expected race in 2016 for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Related: America’s Most and Least Popular Governors

McConnell’s net approval, the difference in his approval and disapproval percentages, dropped 15 percentage points, the third-largest drop in the Senate, from the second quarter, according to the survey. The slide came as he failed to advance Obamacare repeal — a key pillar of the GOP’s political agenda since the law’s enactment in 2010.

Biggest swings

The most dramatic swings in approval came for Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.). Their net rankings both went down 18 percentage points.

Since Morning Consult’s last release in July, West Virginians’ approval of Capito has fallen 8 points, from 56 percent to 48 percent, according to the survey. At the same time, her disapproval rose 10 points, from 26 percent to 36 percent.

Colorado voters are split nearly evenly (40 percent to 39 percent) on Gardner, who chairs the Senate GOP’s campaign arm. Like Capito, his approval dropped 8 percentage points while his disapproval rose 10 percentage points.

Both senators would face voters again in 2020 if they choose to seek second, six-year terms.

The controversies

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) – who spent several weeks consumed by a federal corruption trial – joined the ranks of senators whose approval went underwater in the third quarter. In New Jersey, 32 percent of voters approve of his job performance, the lowest of any senator. Forty-one percent disapprove of him and 28 percent said they did not know or had no opinion of the senator, who has been in that office since January 2006.

Rare improvements

Few senators saw improvement in their net approval rating outside the margins of error since the last survey was published in July. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) broke that rule with a 6-percentage point increase in his net approval after being underwater in the second quarter of the year. The survey found 46 percent of Arizona voters approve of him and 44 percent of voters disapprove of him. McCain was the deciding vote against a Senate plan to repeal Obamacare and has been fighting cancer.

Related: How Voters View 2018’s Most Vulnerable Senators a Year Out

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) both saw their net approval increase by 9 percentage points. For Tester, who is up for re-election next year, that came from a 6-point drop in those who said they disapproved of him, to 33 percent, and a 3-percentage point spike in those who said they approved of him, to 53 percent — a change that is within Montana’s 4-point margin of error.

Another Democrat up for re-election in a state won by Trump last year, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), saw her approval fall 4 points, to 42 percent — but her disapproval hardly moved, ending the quarter at 39 percent after she participated in several August town hall-style events.

State	Senator	Approve	Dissaprove	Don’t Know/No Opinion	Margin of Error
Alabama	Richard Shelby	53%	27%	20%	1%
Alabama	Luther Strange	44%	34%	23%	1%
Alaska	Lisa Murkowski	49%	38%	13%	5%
Alaska	Dan Sullivan	49%	32%	18%	5%
Arizona	John McCain	46%	44%	10%	1%
Arizona	Jeff Flake	33%	48%	20%	1%
Arkansas	Tom Cotton	55%	27%	18%	2%
Arkansas	John Boozman	52%	23%	25%	2%
California	Dianne Feinstein	47%	33%	20%	1%
California	Kamala Harris	46%	26%	28%	1%
Colorado	Michael Bennet	46%	30%	24%	2%
Colorado	Cory Gardner	40%	39%	22%	2%
Connecticut	Richard Blumenthal	54%	34%	12%	2%
Connecticut	Chris Murphy	53%	31%	17%	2%
Delaware	Thomas Carper	55%	24%	20%	3%
Delaware	Chris Coons	48%	29%	22%	3%
Florida	Bill Nelson	50%	26%	24%	1%
Florida	Marco Rubio	47%	37%	16%	1%
Georgia	David Perdue	51%	26%	24%	1%
Georgia	John Isakson	49%	26%	25%	1%
Hawaii	Mazie Hirono	60%	24%	16%	4%
Hawaii	Brian Schatz	60%	22%	18%	4%
Idaho	Michael Crapo	50%	30%	19%	3%
Idaho	James Risch	43%	29%	28%	3%
Illinois	Tammy Duckworth	41%	32%	26%	1%
Illinois	Dick Durbin	37%	38%	25%	1%
Indiana	Joe Donnelly	47%	26%	27%	1%
Indiana	Todd Young	45%	26%	28%	1%
Iowa	Chuck Grassley	50%	35%	15%	2%
Iowa	Joni Ernst	45%	36%	19%	2%
Kansas	Jerry Moran	44%	34%	22%	2%
Kansas	Pat Roberts	39%	40%	21%	2%
Kentucky	Rand Paul	48%	36%	16%	1%
Kentucky	Mitch McConnell	33%	55%	12%	1%
Louisiana	John Kennedy	50%	25%	26%	2%
Louisiana	Bill Cassidy	47%	30%	24%	2%
Maine	Susan Collins	62%	30%	8%	3%
Maine	Angus King	61%	27%	12%	3%
Maryland	Ben Cardin	50%	23%	27%	1%
Maryland	Chris Van Hollen	48%	23%	29%	1%
Massachusetts	Elizabeth Warren	54%	35%	11%	1%
Massachusetts	Ed Markey	49%	22%	28%	1%
Michigan	Debbie Stabenow	45%	36%	19%	1%
Michigan	Gary Peters	37%	28%	35%	1%
Minnesota	Amy Klobuchar	59%	26%	15%	2%
Minnesota	Al Franken	55%	32%	14%	2%
Mississippi	Thad Cochran	51%	27%	21%	2%
Mississippi	Roger Wicker	49%	26%	24%	2%
Missouri	Roy Blunt	44%	36%	20%	1%
Missouri	Claire McCaskill	42%	39%	18%	1%
Montana	Jon Tester	53%	33%	14%	4%
Montana	Steve Daines	49%	32%	20%	4%
Nebraska	Ben Sasse	46%	34%	20%	3%
Nebraska	Deb Fischer	45%	35%	19%	3%
Nevada	Catherine Cortez Masto	45%	32%	23%	2%
Nevada	Dean Heller	39%	39%	21%	2%
New Hampshire	Maggie Hassan	53%	31%	15%	3%
New Hampshire	Jeanne Shaheen	50%	33%	17%	3%
New Jersey	Cory Booker	48%	30%	21%	1%
New Jersey	Robert Menendez	32%	41%	28%	1%
New Mexico	Tom Udall	46%	31%	24%	3%
New Mexico	Martin Heinrich	45%	31%	24%	3%
New York	Chuck Schumer	55%	29%	15%	1%
New York	Kirsten Gillibrand	49%	24%	26%	1%
North Carolina	Richard Burr	42%	32%	27%	1%
North Carolina	Thom Tillis	38%	31%	30%	1%
North Dakota	John Hoeven	63%	20%	18%	4%
North Dakota	Heidi Heitkamp	55%	32%	14%	4%
Ohio	Sherrod Brown	47%	28%	25%	1%
Ohio	Rob Portman	43%	31%	25%	1%
Oklahoma	James Lankford	48%	28%	24%	2%
Oklahoma	James Inhofe	45%	34%	21%	2%
Oregon	Ron Wyden	56%	23%	21%	2%
Oregon	Jeff Merkley	53%	24%	24%	2%
Pennsylvania	Robert Casey	43%	32%	25%	1%
Pennsylvania	Patrick Toomey	39%	38%	23%	1%
Rhode Island	Jack Reed	51%	28%	21%	3%
Rhode Island	Sheldon Whitehouse	49%	32%	18%	3%
South Carolina	Tim Scott	55%	22%	24%	1%
South Carolina	Lindsey Graham	44%	39%	17%	1%
South Dakota	John Thune	56%	31%	13%	4%
South Dakota	Mike Rounds	51%	32%	16%	4%
Tennessee	Bob Corker	48%	30%	23%	1%
Tennessee	Lamar Alexander	45%	31%	23%	1%
Texas	Ted Cruz	52%	32%	16%	1%
Texas	John Cornyn	46%	27%	28%	1%
Utah	Mike Lee	52%	30%	18%	2%
Utah	Orrin Hatch	46%	41%	13%	2%
Vermont	Bernie Sanders	71%	22%	6%	4%
Vermont	Patrick Leahy	67%	22%	12%	4%
Virginia	Mark Warner	53%	28%	19%	1%
Virginia	Tim Kaine	48%	35%	18%	1%
Washington	Patty Murray	51%	32%	17%	1%
Washington	Maria Cantwell	50%	28%	22%	1%
West Virginia	Joe Manchin	53%	36%	11%	2%
West Virginia	Shelley Moore Capito	48%	36%	16%	2%
Wisconsin	Tammy Baldwin	41%	38%	21%	1%
Wisconsin	Ron Johnson	41%	39%	20%	1%
Wyoming	John Barrasso	53%	26%	21%	6%
Wyoming

Comments

Thomas Haley says

November 2, 2017 at 11:03 pm

This bring to mind HL Mencken quote,
“Nobody ever went broke underestimation the idiocy or good taste of the
American people.” And W Edward Deming in Flint said,
(1) In a bad system there are good people doing their best making things worst.
(2) How could they know, who was there to teach them?
(3) An average means 50% are above and 50% are below.

Published quotes:
http://www.slideshare.net/optimaltransformation/a-collection-of-quotes-from-w-edwards-deming

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