By a 2-to-1 margin, Democratic voters want Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to be House speaker in the new Congress, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult survey.
Far more Democratic voters (48 percent) want Pelosi to be speaker next year than say she shouldn’t be speaker (22 percent), a result that’s in line with a handful of other polls conducted in the wake of a historic Democratic victory in the midterm elections.
A majority of Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters (53 percent) would like to see Pelosi be the next speaker, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, while only 27 percent don’t want to see that. A CBS News poll finds 49 percent of self-identified Democrats think Pelosi should be the next speaker, compared with 40 percent who want another Democrat.
Pelosi’s support among Democratic voters stands in contrast to her weak standing with the broader electorate. Among all voters, just 27 percent think she should be made speaker, compared with 43 percent who think she should not be the next speaker.
Pelosi is vying to become speaker eight years after losing the gavel following the 2010 GOP wave election. But even though Democrats are poised to claim a healthy majority in the House next year — with just two races still unresolved, Democrats have won 233 seats, compared with Republicans’ 200 — she has yet to secure the votes of a 218-member majority.
A group of 16 fractious Democrats — most of whom are moderate and male — released a letter Monday pledging to vote against Pelosi in a closed-door conference meeting, and on the floor of the House next January. If they all opposed Pelosi, she would be right at the threshold to win the gavel. There are a handful of other incoming members who didn’t sign the letter but have also pledged to vote for someone else.
In the latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, fewer than 3-in-10 voters overall (29 percent) say they have a favorable opinion of Pelosi, while 46 percent view her unfavorably. That is slightly more positive than the national exit poll of voters in this year’s elections, which showed her favorability at 31 percent, compared with 56 percent who had an unfavorable opinion of her.
Among Democrats, Pelosi is far more popular: the new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows her favorable rating at 52 percent, versus 22 percent unfavorable.
“Nancy Pelosi continues to be a polarizing figure in politics, but Democrats still have confidence in her taking the gavel as House speaker in January,” said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president.
By a wide margin, Republican voters say Pelosi should not be made speaker: Just 11 percent support her candidacy, while 61 percent oppose it. But support for Pelosi is also tepid among independent voters: Only 22 percent say she should be speaker, while 44 percent say she shouldn’t be.
Before the new Congress convenes after the new year, both chambers must advance legislation next month to keep the federal government fully funded, with each party staking out ground to attach its priorities to a must-pass spending bill. But few voters say funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border (31 percent) or protecting the special counsel‘s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election (27 percent) is important enough to warrant shutting down the government.
President Donald Trump has pushed for an increase in funding for his proposal to build a border wall and has, in the past, suggested Republicans in Congress should not approve spending bills that don’t provide those funds. Meanwhile, Trump’s removal of Jeff Sessions as attorney general earlier this month has set off calls from Democrats — and some Republicans, like outgoing Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake — for legislation that protects the Justice Department’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted November 15-18, surveying 1,957 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.
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