How do Americans feel about today’s political leaders? Many political figures are viewed more negatively than positively — in some cases, even within their own party — recent YouGov polling on 60 Democratic and 60 Republican political figures finds. The surveys asked about presidents, cabinet members, governors, members of Congress, and other political leaders.
We compare opinions about the 120 politicians by each one's net favorability — that is, the share of people with a very or somewhat favorable opinion of a figure minus the share with a very or somewhat unfavorable opinion. We also calculate awareness of each figure, that is, the share of people who provide a response other than "don't know." We calculated net favorability and awareness among Americans overall and within each political figure's party.
Politicians are more often disliked than liked by Americans, the results show. The average net favorability of all figures included in the survey is -6; for Democratic figures, it is -5, and for Republicans, it is -8. Awareness of the political figures ranges from 97% (President Donald Trump) to 25% (Seth Moulton, a Democrat in the House), with an average of 54%.
Barack Obama is by far the most well-liked political figure among the 120 asked about, with a net favorability among Americans of +22. He is followed by Bernie Sanders (+12) and Ben Carson (+6). Fifteen other figures also have modestly positive net favorability, between +1 and +4.
Mitch McConnell has the lowest net favorability among Americans (-45). The next lowest net favorabilities belong to Dick Cheney (-32), Chuck Schumer (-31), and Andrew Cuomo (-30). Other politicians with net favorability of -20 or worse are Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Nancy Pelosi, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Eric Adams, Lindsey Graham, and Hillary Clinton.
Among Americans overall, many of the most well-known politicians are also the most disliked. Average net favorability of the 30 most well-known political leaders is -12; for the bottom 30, it is -3.
Only a handful of figures known by more than half of Americans are viewed favorably by a larger share than view them unfavorably. These are Obama (+22), Sanders (+12), Carson (+6), George W. Bush (+3), Mark Kelly (+2), Amy Klobuchar (+1), and Gretchen Whitmer (+1).
How party members rate their politicians
Democrats
Democratic politicians are generally popular within their party. Their average net favorability is +33, and 58 of the 60 included in the poll have positive net favorability among Democrats. The Democratic politicians who are most well-known are also among the most well-liked by members of their party.
Former presidential and vice presidential candidates top the list of Democrats' favorites: Obama (+86 net favorability), Kamala Harris (+84), Sanders (+75), Biden (+70), and Tim Walz (+61). Walz is followed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (+61) — who is the only Democrat in the top 10 who hasn't run for president or vice president. Also in the top 10, after Ocasio-Cortez, are Hillary Clinton (+59), Elizabeth Warren (+58), Cory Booker (+52), and Pete Buttigieg (+51). (The survey was conducted before Booker's 25-hour speech on the Senate floor.)
Further down in the ranking is former Democratic House leader Pelosi (+38), who has a similar net favorability by Democrats as current House leader Hakeem Jeffries (+39). Pelosi is far more well-known than Jeffries, and her net favorability is significantly lower within her party than other Democrats who are as recognizable as she is. Democrats' leader in the Senate — Schumer — is better known than Jeffries yet liked by only slightly more than dislike him (+3).
Adams (-26) and Cuomo (-1) are the only two Democratic politicians in our survey who have negative net favorability among Democrats. (The survey was conducted before criminal charges against Adams were dropped and he announced plans to run as an incumbent for New York City as an Independent, against Cuomo). Several other well-known Democrats also have low net favorability within their party, including John Fetterman (+2), Kirsten Gillibrand (+15), and Josh Shapiro (+22).
While the most popular Democratic political figures generally are near the top among subsets of Democrats, some politicians do substantially better with certain subgroups. For example, Warren, Ilhan Omar, Jasmine Crockett, and Dean Philiips are better liked by Democrats who identify as very liberal than by those who say they are liberal. The reverse is true about Schumer and Kathy Hochul.
Democrats 45 and older are more likely than younger adults in the party to feel favorably toward Pelosi, Stacey Abrams, Hillary Clinton, and Maxine Waters. Younger Democrats are more likely to have favorable views of Adams and Jared Polis. Net favorability of Jamie Raskin and Rahm Emanuel is higher among Democratic men than women. Democrats who graduated college are more likely than those who didn't to feel favorably toward Tammy Duckworth, Jon Ossoff, Crockett, Raskin, Abrams, and Buttigieg.
Another way of comparing the political figures is with a modified net favorability — only among respondents who have formed opinions about each politician, excluding responses of "don't know." This alternative method can help highlight lesser-known figures who are well-liked by the members of their party who know them. Among Democrats who rank higher by this method are Julian Castro, Hochul, J.B. Pritzker, Sherrod Brown, Crockett, Tammy Baldwin, Andy Beshear, and Omar.
Republicans
Republican figures included in the survey fare slightly worse with members of their party than Democratic figures do with theirs. The average net favorability of Republican leaders among members of their party is +25, compared to +33 for Democrats. Republican figures are known by an average of 58% of Republicans, which is just slightly above the average of 54% of Democrats who are aware of politicians asked about from within their own party.
The Republican figures with the highest net favorability among Republicans are JD Vance (+78), Donald Trump, Jr. (+76), Donald Trump (+76), and Ron DeSantis (+68). Other figures with high ratings are Elon Musk (+57), Ted Cruz (+54), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (+53), and Carson (+51).
Eight Republican figures have net negative favorability among members of their party: Liz Cheney (-33), McConnell (-26), Dick Cheney (-22), Christie (-18), Mitt Romney (-13), Lisa Murkowski (-4), Adam Kinzinger (-3), and Susan Collins (-1). Pence, who is among the most well-known Republicans, has a net favorability of 0 among members of his party. Liz Cheney and Kinzinger are the only figures who are significantly more well-liked by members of the opposing party than within their own. Murkowski and Romney are rated about equally by members of both parties.
Many of the Republicans asked about in the survey are members of the Trump administration. Of these, Vance and Trump rank highest among Republicans. Kennedy, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, and Tulsi Gabbard also do quite well. The members of Trump's administration who were included in the poll and rank lowest among Republicans are Doug Burgum, Kari Lake, and Sean Duffy.
Net favorability of Trump, Greene, Herschel Walker, Tim Scott, and Greg Abbott are all higher among Republicans who identify as very conservative than among those who identify as conservative. McConnell, Paul Ryan, John Kasich, Romney, and Christie all do better with conservatives than with those who are very conservative.
Republicans 45 and older hold more favorable views of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Rubio, Pam Bondi, Walker, Pete Hegseth, Carson, Scott, and Kennedy. Republican adults under 45 are more favorable towards Liz Cheney, Murkowski, McConnell, Romney, and Kinzinger. Noem is viewed far more favorably by Republican men than by Republican women; Walker, Mike Johnson, Pompeo, and Lee also do better among men. Murkowski's net favorability is higher among Republican women than men.
Katie Britt, Duffy, Linda McMahon do better among Republicans with our modified net favorability — calculated after excluding respondents who said, "don't know."
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the results for these YouGov polls
Methodology: This article includes results from two polls, both conducted online. The poll about Democratic political figures was conducted among 2,285 U.S. adult citizens on two separate surveys from March 19 - 22, 2025 and March 20 - 23, 2025. The poll about Republican political figures was conducted among 2,260 U.S. adult citizens on two separate surveys from March 21 - 24, 2025 and March 24 - 27, 2025. Each respondent was asked about a random sample of 30 of the 60 political figures in each survey. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample on each survey is approximately 3%.
Image: Getty
