Tracking the Approval Ratings of All 100 U.S. Senators
Morning Consult is conducting thousands of surveys every day, asking registered U.S. voters in all 50 states if they approve or disapprove of their senator’s job performance. Every quarter, we’ll update this page with the latest tracking data.
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Key Takeaways
Sanders retains top spot: Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont is the most popular senator in the country, with a 69% approval rating for the second quarter running, followed by Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming, with a 67% approval rating.
McConnell remains the most unpopular: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell remains America’s most unpopular senator for the 16th successive quarter. The Kentuckian’s popularity at home is yet to recover from steep declines suffered during the end days of the Trump administration at the turn of the 2020 election year, though the share who disapprove of his job performance has declined a bit over the past year.
Cassidy faces primary pressure: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has a 69% approval rating among Bayou State Republicans, a significant improvement from a low we measured after he voted to convict Donald Trump in early 2021. However, he’s still weaker with the base than the state’s Republican governor and junior senator. See how Republicans who could run for re-election in 2026 stand with their base.
How December's freshmen look: Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) starts his Senate career with a 48% approval rating, compared with 25% who disapprove. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) faces a bit of a tougher environment, with 44% of California voters approving and 30% disapproving. Over a quarter of voters in each state have yet to form opinions on these senators, who were sworn in last month.
Data Downloads
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America’s most popular and unpopular senators
- Aside from McConnell, only three other senators — Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Ted Cruz of Texas, who were just re-elected in November, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — have higher disapproval ratings than approval ratings.
- That trio is joined among the country’s most unpopular senators by Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who just narrowly secured re-election, and Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who were ousted.
- Looking to the 2026 midterm elections, Susan Collins of Maine is the lone vulnerable incumbent up for re-election next year who ranks among America’s most unpopular senators.
- Chris Murphy of Connecticut re-enters the ranks of the country’s most popular senators, knocking newly elected Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota down the rankings.
- Delegations from states with small populations and strong partisan leans are heavily represented in the most popular list, continuing a long-term trend we observe in our rankings.
Senators' approval ratings
- Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) notched record-high approval ratings in our tracking that dates back to 2017. It’s an especially noteworthy development for Blackburn, who is considering a gubernatorial bid back home.
- Pennsylvania voters are 11 points more likely to approve of Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s job performance than disapprove (48% to 37%), marking his best net approval rating since he took office in 2023.
Methodology
All state-level data is based on a three-month roll-up of responses from Morning Consult’s daily U.S. tracking survey among registered voters. Margins of error among registered voters vary by state, from as low as +/-6 percentage points in less populous states such as Wyoming to +/-1 point in more populous states such as California.
Consult our State-Level Tracking Methodology Primer for additional details on the state-level data sources, including sampling and data collection procedures, weighting and representativeness, margins of error, and question wording.
About Morning Consult
Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company changing how modern leaders make smarter, faster, better decisions. The company pairs its proprietary high-frequency data with applied artificial intelligence to better inform decisions on what people think and how they will act. Learn more at morningconsult.com.
Eli Yokley is Morning Consult’s U.S. politics analyst. Eli joined Morning Consult in 2016 from Roll Call, where he reported on House and Senate campaigns after five years of covering state-level politics in the Show Me State while studying at the University of Missouri in Columbia, including contributions to The New York Times, Politico and The Daily Beast. Follow him on Twitter @eyokley. Interested in connecting with Eli to discuss his analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].
Cameron Easley is Morning Consult’s head of U.S. Political Analysis. He has led Morning Consult's coverage of U.S. politics and elections since 2016, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, Axios, FiveThirtyEight and on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Cameron joined Morning Consult from Roll Call, where he was managing editor. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Follow him on Twitter @cameron_easley. Interested in connecting with Cameron to discuss his analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].
