Congressional Approval Much Worse Than Presidential Approval

Although President Biden has had a negative approval rating for most of his term, polls throughout his term indicate Congress is even more unpopular. With disapproval coming from both parties' voters, Congress continues to struggle with the lowest approval ratings of any branch of government.

The latest poll from The Economist/YouGov, taken from Sept. 8-10 with 1,461 registered voters, found that while Biden faced a -16% approval rating, Congress faced a whopping -52% approval, with only 13% approving and 65% disapproving. This isn’t a fluke of this specific poll either, as since the start of June, every Economist poll has had the congressional job approval at least a -44% approval rating.

Other pollsters differ on the exact level of disapproval of Congress, but all find it pretty grim. A Harvard-Harris poll taken from Sept. 4-5 found that it had -29% approval, and the August Gallup poll found it had -57% approval. The current RCP Average for Congressional Job Approval has it at -40% net approval.

This disapproval is bipartisan as well. In The Economist poll, Democrats, independents, and Republicans disapproved of Congress at similar rates, 59%, 60%, and 60%, respectively.

Most figures inside of Congress don’t face the same negativity about their job approval, though. In the Economist poll, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had 31% approval and 35% disapproval, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer received the same 31% approval but slightly more disapproval at 42%, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries faced 30% approval and 31% disapproval. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had the lowest approval rating of congressional leadership, with only 18% approving and 58% disapproving of his performance.

Disapproval of Congress’ job performance isn’t a peculiarity of the Biden administration; however, since RealClearPolitics started tracking congressional job approval in 2009, it has never had a net positive approval. The best net approval it had was in March 2009, when it had only a -15% approval. Over Biden’s term as president, the best job approval for Congress has been -19.2% in May 2021.

The other branch of government, the judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court, also currently has negative approval ratings, although not nearly as negative as Congress. In The Economist/YouGov poll, 36% approved, while 50% disapproved. Unlike Congress, this largely fell along party lines, with 73% of Democrats disapproving, while only 26% of Republicans disapproved. This was representative of what respondents believed the ideology of the Supreme Court is as well, with only 10% saying they thought the Supreme Court is liberal, while 42% said it is conservative, and 28% said it is moderate.