Note: This is the second of four columns that will be released every Monday leading up to the 2018 midterm elections.
A recent gallop pole found that independent senator Bernie Sanders is the only politician in the US to have an approval rating over 50%. Morning Consultant also found Bernie Sanders to be the most popular Senator in the country as of July 2018 with a 63% approval rating.
Meanwhile, the least approved senator is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with a disapproval rating of 56%. Others on that list include the moderate Republican Jeff Flake, the party line pusher Marco Rubio, and the infamous blue dog Joe Manchin.
What I find most interesting is that the most disliked Senator, isn't just the leader of one of the two political parties, but also the leader of the party with the most senate seats. Why is this? Because Americans don't elect representatives that actually represent them.
McConnell won his 2014 election with 56.2% of the vote from the state of Kentucky. This is despite only 30% of Americans approving of his performance as a Senator. Of course the senate elections aren't federal so it shouldn't be 1 to 1 approval and votes, but the gap is clear.
Meanwhile, a liked senator like Sanders won in 2012 by a vote of 71%, and has an approval rating of 63%. It also seems that when a senator is more progressive the approval rating seems to be much more similar to the percent of people they were elected by.
So make sure whoever your representative is actually represents you, stop having these really weird disparities like the ones that currently exist in the senate.
A recent gallop pole found that independent senator Bernie Sanders is the only politician in the US to have an approval rating over 50%. Morning Consultant also found Bernie Sanders to be the most popular Senator in the country as of July 2018 with a 63% approval rating.
Meanwhile, the least approved senator is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with a disapproval rating of 56%. Others on that list include the moderate Republican Jeff Flake, the party line pusher Marco Rubio, and the infamous blue dog Joe Manchin.
What I find most interesting is that the most disliked Senator, isn't just the leader of one of the two political parties, but also the leader of the party with the most senate seats. Why is this? Because Americans don't elect representatives that actually represent them.
McConnell won his 2014 election with 56.2% of the vote from the state of Kentucky. This is despite only 30% of Americans approving of his performance as a Senator. Of course the senate elections aren't federal so it shouldn't be 1 to 1 approval and votes, but the gap is clear.
Meanwhile, a liked senator like Sanders won in 2012 by a vote of 71%, and has an approval rating of 63%. It also seems that when a senator is more progressive the approval rating seems to be much more similar to the percent of people they were elected by.
So make sure whoever your representative is actually represents you, stop having these really weird disparities like the ones that currently exist in the senate.
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