Blumenthal is 20th Most Popular Senator Among Home State Constituents; Murphy Ranks 43rd of 100
/U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent running for the Democratic presidential nomination is the nation’s most popular United States Senator, with an approval rating surpassing 4 out of 5 voters in his home state. A comprehensive survey of more than 75,000 voters in all 50 states, conducted over several months by Morning Consult, shows Sanders has the highest approval rating of any U.S. Senator among his own constituents, at 83 percent, with only 13 percent disapproval of the job he’s doing representing them in the nation’s Capitol.
The ratings for Connecticut’s Senators: Richard Blumenthal: 58% approval, 29% disapproval; Chris Murphy: 52% approval, 27% disapproval. Both Senators were among the top 50 among the Senate’s 100 members.
Blumenthal is tied for 12th among Democratic Senators, and tied for 20th overall among Senators of both parties (and independents). Murphy ranks 43th overall, tied with seven colleagues.
The top 10 Senators with the highest approval ratings in their home states, after were Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) 83%; Susan Collins (R-Maine) 78%; John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) 73%; Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) 71%; John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) 69%; Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) 67%; Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) 67%; Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) 66%; Angus King (I-Maine) 65%; John Thune (R-South Dakota) 65%;
The next nine include Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) 64%; Al Franken (D-Minnesota) 63%); Tom Carper (D-Delaware) 61%; Chuck Schumer (D-New York) 61%; Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) 60%; Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) 60%; Patty Murray (D-Washington) 59%; Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) 59%; Shelly Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) 59%.
Tied ranking 20th are nine Senators including Blumenthal: Chris Coons (D-Delaware) 58%; Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) 58%; Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) 58%; Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) 58%; Mark Warner (D-Virginia) 58%; Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) 58%; Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi) 58%; Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire) 58%;
And while voters continue to disdain Congress as a whole, they have much more positive views of their home-state Senators: the polling shows 69 of 100 United States senators have approval ratings of 50 percent or higher among their own constituents, according to Moring Consult.
Only one senator has a disapproval rating higher than 50 percent among his own constituents: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is still recovering from tens of millions of dollars in negative campaign ads thrown against him when he won re-election in 2014, the website reported.
The polls, conducted between May and November, asked a total of 76,569 registered voters whether they approve or disapprove of the job their state’s senators are doing. Voters were identified based on their Zip codes and other factors, and each state’s sample was weighted based on gender, age and race, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.
No state has a higher opinion of its two senators than Vermont. Sanders’s colleague, Patrick Leahy (D), the longest-serving member of the Senate, begins his campaign for re-election with a 71 percent approval rating, the fourth-highest job performance mark in the Senate.
Sen. Susan Collins is the most popular Republican in the Senate; 78 percent of the 654 registered Maine voters interviewed said they approve of her job performance, while just 16 percent disapprove. Maine voters give Sen. Angus King (I) a 65 percent approval rating.
Democrats had an average approval rating of 54 percent, while Republicans have an average approval rating of 51 percent. Both parties are blown out of the water by the two hugely popular independents, Sanders and King, Morning Consult highlighted. Margins of error varied according to sample sizes. The median sample size was 1,172 respondents.
