Less than a third of Republican voters said they'd be more likely to vote for a member of Congress that supported Sen. Mitch McConnell remaining as majority leader in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Poll: GOP voters not enthused by Mitch McConnell as majority leader

A slim plurality of Republican voters are less likely to support their member of Congress if they backed Mitch McConnell to remain on as majority leader, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

The poll, which was conducted Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, found that just 28 percent of Republican voters surveyed said they’d be more likely to vote for a member of Congress that supported McConnell.


Thirty percent of registered GOP voters said they’d be less likely and 15 percent said it had no impact on their vote.

President Donald Trump has publicly and privately feuded with the Kentucky Republican during the summer congressional recess. The president said he was “very disappointed” in McConnell and criticized his inability to repeal and replace Obamacare several times on Twitter.

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Enthusiasm for House Speaker Paul Ryan was higher among Republican voters. 40 percent said they would be more likely to support a member of Congress that approved of Ryan remaining at his post, while 28 percent said they’d be less likely.

Registered Democratic voters also backed their party’s legislative leaders. Forty-five percent said they’d be more likely to vote for a member that supported House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, with 21 percent saying they’d be less likely.

However, Pelosi has faced some public grumbling from members of her caucus about her remaining on as leader after Democrats faced a disappointing 2016 and lost all of the contested special elections in 2017.

“I think you’d have to be an idiot to think we could win the House with Pelosi at the top,” Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) told POLITICO in June. “Nancy Pelosi is not the only reason that [Georgia special election candidate Jon] Ossoff lost. But she certainly is one of the reasons.”

Forty-three percent of Democratic voters said they’d be more likely to vote for a supporter of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and just 15% said they’d be less likely.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,993 registered voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. 647 registered Republicans and 693 registered Democrats were polled.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: http://politi.co/2gEdRKE | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2f0QuLe

