Least Popular Senators in America

Distrust in government institutions is surging in the United States. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 25% of American adults had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, down from 36% in 2021. Meanwhile, confidence in the U.S. presidency fell from 38% to 23% over the same period. While these latest confidence ratings mark all-time lows, no government entity is less trusted than the U.S. Congress.

Only 7% of American adults have a high-level of confidence in Congress, a 5 percentage point decline from 2021 and the lowest rating of all 16 major institutions covered in the survey.

The U.S. Senate is the most powerful chamber of Congress, and widespread distrust of the institution as a whole is partially reflected in the American people’s perception of their own elected representatives. While no sitting senator is less popular than the legislative branch as a whole, most have approval ratings below 50%. (Here is a look at the 24 members of Congress who didn’t last 100 days.)

Using Morning Consult polling data, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 50 least popular senators in America. Senators were ranked by their 2023 approval rating in 2023. Ties were broken by disapproval ratings, and in cases where senators shared the same approval and disapproval rating, the senator with the largest survey sample size ranked higher.

Approval ratings among the 50 least popular senators range from as low as 28% to no more than 48%. Twenty one of the least popular senators are Democrats, 28 are Republicans, and one is an Independent.

By and large, the American people are fed up by partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill. According to a December 2022 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 74% of adults want their lawmakers to find solutions through compromise. Despite these findings, many sitting U.S. senators who have broken with party orthodoxy are not held in high regard by their constituents.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, for example, switched her party affiliation from Democrat to independent in December 2022. And with a 42% approval rating and 44% disapproval rating, she now ranks as the ninth least popular senator. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, meanwhile, has repeatedly stood in the way of President Joe Biden’s policy initiatives and is often the lone voice of descent among senators in his party. Manchin’s approval rating of 38% is the second lowest in the chamber. Both Sens. Sinema and Manchin face an uphill battle for reelection in 2024, should they choose to run.

But, with an approval rating of just 28%, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, is by far the least popular sitting U.S. senator. Support for Donald Trump has been a political litmus test in the eyes of many voters, and McConnell has broken with many of his Republican colleagues by condemning the former president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. (Here is a look at America’s most popular senators.)

Click here to see the least popular senators in America.

Click here to see our detailed methodology.

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