A wide majority of GOP voters disapprove of their party's performance in Washington
Republican voters are not happy with their party’s stalled efforts to pass legislation through a Congress where they have full control, according to a new poll.
The Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday found that 61% of Republican voters disapprove of the the way their party is navigating Congress, while only 32% approve. Overall, 78% of American voters disapprove of the job Republicans are doing in Congress, and only 15% approve.
Those are grim statistics for Republicans with the 2018 midterm elections on the horizon. Forty-four percent of independent voters said they want Democrats to regain control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 elections, and 47% said they want Democrats to regain control of the Senate. Currently, 63% of voters disapprove of the job Democrats are doing in Congress, according to the poll.
With the exception of a Hurricane Harvey relief bill that simultaneously extended the debt ceiling for three months — the result of negotiations between President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi — Republicans have yet to enact a significant piece of legislation since the Trump took office. They have also failed to fulfill their years-long pledge to repeal former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The dissatisfaction extends to Trump, too: 57% of voters disapprove of the way the President is handling his job, 59% do not think he is honest, and 67% do not think he is level headed. His Twitter habit also remains widely unpopular; 69% want him to stop tweeting.
The poll, conducted from Sept. 21-26, has a margin of error of plus or minus e.1 percentage points.