The Least Popular U.S. Senators [Rankings]

Americans are quite divided when it comes to picking the candidate they want to be their next president. But when it comes to the contentious world of politics, there is one thing that just about everyone seems to agree on: most people think Congress is kind of the worst.

Indeed, Americans give Congress notably low marks, with the latest Gallup poll revealing an 18 percent approval rating. For a bit more perspective on just how much people dislike the legislators on Capitol Hill, Public Policy Polling measured Congress’ popularity against 26 other things, like Brussels sprouts, colonoscopies and lice. The 2013 questionnaire found that things like traffic jams, cockroaches and used car salesmen are more popular than Congress. (To be fair, the survey did find that Congress is more popular than a handful of things like meth labs, gonorrhea and the Kardashian family.)

With all this in mind, Graphiq politics site InsideGov used data from Morning Consult to figure out which senators are the least popular among their constituents. Morning Consult performed interviews with more than 62,000 registered voters between Jan. 8, 2016, and April 17, 2016, to determine approval and disapproval ratings for senators in all 50 states. InsideGov used this data to rank the 25 senators with the lowest marks, with the list going from lowest to highest disapproval rating. In the event of a tie, InsideGov used approval ratings, ranking the senator with the lower approval rating higher on the list. In one instance, two senators have the same disapproval and approval numbers; they were listed alphabetically.

#25. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

Disapproval Rating: 32 Percent
Approval Rating: 50 Percent
No Opinion: 18 Percent

After serving one term in the House, Arkansas voters elected Cotton to the Senate in 2014. Just two months after his swearing in, Cotton penned an open letter to Iran’s leaders warning them not to make an agreement with President Barack Obama. At the time, the White House was working with five other world powers on a nuclear deal involving Iran.

#24. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa

Disapproval Rating: 32 Percent
Approval Rating: 47 Percent
No Opinion: 21 Percent

Ernst galloped onto the national stage in 2014, when her ad during the Senate GOP primary drew a comparison between castrating pigs and cutting government spending. Titled “Squeal,” the publicity around the ad helped push her to victory in that primary. She won the general election with 52.2 percent of the vote. Ernst has been mentioned as a potential vice presidential pick for the Republican ticket in 2016.

#23. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

Disapproval Rating: 32 Percent
Approval Rating: 43 Percent
No Opinion: 25 Percent

This freshman Republican out of Wisconsin is up for re-election in 2016, and the Washington Post declared he was the “most vulnerable senator on the map.” In 2010, Johnson defeated then-Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat who had served in the Senate since 1993. This year’s race will be a rematch between the two.

#22. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Disapproval Rating: 32 Percent Approval Rating: 42 Percent
No Opinion: 26 Percent

Menendez got his start in New Jersey local politics, and joined the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2015, the Justice Department indicted Menendez and one of his major donors, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, in connection with a bribery scheme. The Justice Department’s press release revealed: “According to allegations in the indictment, between January 2006 and January 2013, Menendez accepted close to $1 million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence the outcome of ongoing contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars to Melgen and to support the visa applications of several of Melgen’s girlfriends.”

#21. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.

Disapproval Rating: 33 Percent
Approval Rating: 58 Percent
No Opinion: 9 Percent

Shaheen’s time in politics has been characterized by a series of firsts: she was New Hampshire’s first female governor, and became its first female senator in 2008. She currently has a high enough approval rating to get her onto InsideGov’s recent list of most popular senators, but her disapproval numbers are high enough to get her onto this list, too. For Shaheen, that reflects how many people in New Hampshire have definitive feelings about their senator — only 9 percent of Shaheen’s constituents said they have no opinion of her.

#20. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

Disapproval Rating: 33 Percent
Approval Rating: 52 Percent
No Opinion: 15 Percent

Whitehouse won his first term in the Senate in 2006. Before that, he served as Rhode Island’s Attorney General.

#19. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Disapproval Rating: 33 Percent
Approval Rating: 48 Percent
No Opinion: 19 Percent

This South Carolina native has been in politics since 1992, when he was first elected to the state’s House of Representatives. After eight years in the U.S. House, Graham joined the Senate, where he has been a staunch supporter of a robust U.S. presence abroad. He briefly ran for president this cycle, and has been an outspoken opponent of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

#18. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii

Disapproval Rating: 33 Percent
Approval Rating: 46 Percent
No Opinion: 21 Percent

Schatz was appointed to his current seat after the death of longtime Democratic Sen. Dan Inouye in December 2012. Schatz resoundingly won the 2014 special election, collecting 69.8 percent of the vote.

#17. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

Disapproval Rating: 33 Percent
Approval Rating: 39 Percent
No Opinion: 29 Percent

Kirk was first elected to the House in 2000, and joined the Senate in 2010. In 2012, he had a stroke, and his recovery process kept him from Congress for close to a year. The Illinois native is running for re-election in 2016 in a tight race against Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth.

#16. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Disapproval Rating: 34 Percent
Approval Rating: 48 Percent
No Opinion: 17 Percent

Stabenow, a lifelong Michigander, got her start in state politics in the late 1970s, wth stints in the Michigan state House and Senate. She was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000.

#15. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

Disapproval Rating: 35 Percent
Approval Rating: 54 Percent
No Opinion: 10 Percent

Ayotte is a first-term senator up for re-election in 2016. In her 2010 race, Ayotte nabbed endorsements from one-time presidential running mates, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Arizona Sen. John McCain. In 2013, Newsmax named Ayotte as the most influential woman in the Republican Party.

#14. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Disapproval Rating: 35 Percent
Approval Rating: 51 Percent
No Opinion: 14 Percent

This eye-doctor-turned-politician went to Capitol Hill in 2010 with a significant amount of name recognition, seeing as he is the son of libertarian darling Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. Both father and son have run for president on a limited government platform: the elder Paul ran in 1988, 2008 and 2012, while Rand Paul ran in the 2016 contest.

#13. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.

Disapproval Rating: 35 Percent
Approval Rating: 50 Percent
No Opinion: 15 Percent

In 2012, Heitkamp became the first woman to be elected to represent North Dakota in the U.S. Senate. Previously, she was the state’s Attorney General from 1992 to 2000.

#12. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

Disapproval Rating: 35 Percent
Approval Rating: 42 Percent
No Opinion: 23 Percent

After six terms in the House, Arizonans sent Flake to the Senate in 2012. He has been a vocal opponent of this year’s presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, recently saying he “can’t at this point” support Trump.

#11. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

Disapproval Rating: 36 Percent
Approval Rating: 43 Percent
No Opinion: 21 Percent

Durbin first went to Capitol Hill in 1982, when he was elected to the U.S. House. He moved over to the Senate in 1996, and currently serves as the Democrat’s minority whip, the second-highest position in the party.

#10. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

Disapproval Rating: 37 Percent
Approval Rating: 43 Percent
No Opinion: 21 Percent

Baldwin got her start in state-level politics, serving in the Wisconsin Assembly from 1993 to 1999. She was then elected to the U.S. House, and joined the Senate in 2012. A Madison, Wis., native, Baldwin is the first woman elected to represent the Badger State in the Senate. She is also the first openly gay person to be elected to the Senate.

#9. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Disapproval Rating: 38 Percent
Approval Rating: 48 Percent
No Opinion: 15 Percent

In 2006, McCaskill became the first woman elected to the Senate to represent Missouri. She secured a second term in 2012, after a contentious race with Republican Rep. Todd Akin that grabbed national headlines. In an interview with a local news station a few months before the election, Akin made comments related to abortion and rape, saying: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.” McCaskill won with almost 55 percent of the vote.

#8. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

Disapproval Rating: 40 Percent
Approval Rating: 48 Percent
No Opinion: 12 Percent

A Montana native, Tester started out as a farmer before entering state-level politics in 1998. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 and then re-elected in 2012.

#7. Sen. David Vitter, R-La.

Disapproval Rating: 40 Percent
Approval Rating: 44 Percent
No Opinion: 16 Percent

Louisianans indicated they are fairly split on Vitter, giving him a 40 percent disapproval rating. But a newsier data point tells a different story. Vitter ran as the Republican candidate in the 2015 gubernatorial election in the Bayou State, and was trounced by Democrat John Bel Edwards. Vitter is retiring from the Senate at the end of his 2016 term.

#6. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah

Disapproval Rating: 41 Percent
Approval Rating: 49 Percent
No Opinion: 10 Percent

Hatch is the longest serving Republican in the Senate, and was first elected in 1976. In his most recent race, in 2012, Hatch was re-elected with 65.2 percent of the vote.

#5. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Disapproval Rating: 41 Percent
Approval Rating: 45 Percent
No Opinion: 14 Percent

Reid is retiring at the end of his 2016 term after decades on Capitol Hill. He was first elected to the House in 1982, and joined the Senate in 1986. Reid currently serves as the Senate minority leader.

#4. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Disapproval Rating: 41 Percent
Approval Rating: 45 Percent
No Opinion: 14 Percent

Rubio joined the Senate in 2010 as part of the GOP wave that boosted so many Republicans into office. Despite being called “the Republican Savior” in 2013, Rubio was unable to find traction in this year’s GOP presidential contest. He suspended his White House bid in March 2016, and has said he would not run for re-election for his Senate seat. But a recent poll indicated that many Florida Republicans prefer him to the other candidates currently running for Senate.

#3. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Disapproval Rating: 42 Percent
Approval Rating: 49 Percent
No Opinion: 9 Percent

McCain — a longtime politician from Arizona and a Republican presidential hopeful in 2000 and 2008 — is in the midst of one of the toughest campaigns of his political career. He currently leads the Democratic candidate, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, by just 2.4 percent.

#2. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

Disapproval Rating: 42 Percent
Approval Rating: 40 Percent
No Opinion: 19 Percent

Although Roberts has been representing Kansas on Capitol Hill since the early 1980s, 19 percent of his constituents don’t have an opinion of him. Roberts was first elected to the U.S. House in 1980, and then to the Senate in 1996.

#1. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Disapproval Rating: 49 Percent
Approval Rating: 40 Percent
No Opinion: 11 Percent

McConnell is the least popular senator on this list, with a 49 percent disapproval rating from his constituents. McConnell has held leadership positions among his GOP colleagues in the Senate since the early 2000s. He became the majority leader in January 2015, when the Republicans took control of the chamber.

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