Poll: Kevin McCarthy Is the Most Popular Leader in Congress

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has the strongest favorability rating of any Congressional leader, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll. 

The poll, taken on July 12 and 16-17, shows that 42 percent of likely voters sampled have a “favorable” view of McCarthy, while 41 percent have a negative view, giving him a net rating of +1 percent. Another 17 percent are unsure of how they perceive him.

His Democrat counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY), has a -1 net favorability rating. He is liked by 34 percent of the respondents, while 35 percent find him unfavorable, and 31 percent are not sure of how they feel about Jeffries, who succeeded Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as the party’s leader in the lower chamber. 

In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s favorability rating is deep underwater. Only 26 percent view McConnell, who inexplicably froze during a press conference Thursday, positively. That includes just six percent of respondents whose view of him is “very favorable.” Conversely, 64 percent say they view him unfavorably, and only 10 percent do not have negative or positive feeling toward him.

WATCH: Mitch McConnell Freezes Mid-Speech, Led Away from Podium

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On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also finds himself with a net-negative rating. While 37 percent view him favorably, a majority of 52 percent say their view of him is unfavorable to varying degrees, and another 11 percent do not have opinions one way or another. 

Rasmussen sampled 1,002 likely U.S. voters for the poll. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points. 

The poll comes as McCarthy enjoyed a successful second fundraising quarter, outraising Jeffries $21 million to $6 million, despite the Democrat’s team’s initial claim to Punch Bowl News that Jeffries hauled $29 million. 

FACT CHECK https://t.co/2pEWPBhTcS https://t.co/PB1pfM9jRz pic.twitter.com/62nNmfE01S

— Jack Pandol (@jackpandol) July 25, 2023

Jeffries’s team had included funds raised at Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) events he attended and McCarthy did not include National Republican Congressional Committee funds raised at events he attended in his totals. If he had included those funds, his team told the Washington Free Beacon, another $14.7 million would have been counted towards his totals, bringing the figure up to $36 million to best Jeffries’s $29 million. The Beacon first reported on the discrepancy between the initial report and Federal Election Commission records.

McCarthy and the NRCC’s combined total for the second quarter equaled $47 million, trouncing Jeffries and the DCCC’s total of $35 million.