Sen. Joe Manchin least popular politician in country, poll finds
?Sen. Joe Manchin has emerged as the nation’s most unpopular politician — even surpassing President Biden, whose approval rating is slumping, for the dubious distinction, according to a new poll. ?
Just 11% of registered voters view the West Virginia Democrat in a positive light, the NBC News poll released Tuesday found.
Meanwhile, roughly one-third of voters (34%) had negative feelings, making Manchin the most unpopular figure in the poll with a net negative rating of 23%.?
Manchin, who scuttled Biden’s Build Back Better Act last December only to revive parts of it in the Inflation Reduction Act after months of negotiation, tops the list??by a comfortable margin.
The next-most unpopular pol?after Manchin is former Vice President Mike Pence with a net negative rating of ?19 points — 25% positive, 44% negative.
He’s followed by former President Donald Trump at 18 points net negative (36% positive, 54% negative) and Vice President Kamala Harris, whose net negative rating ties Trump — 32% positive, 50% negative.
Next up — or down — is the Democratic Party with a 17-point net negativity rating, followed closely by the Republican Party at 15 points.?
Biden’s net negativity rating is at 8 points — 40% positive, 48% negative.
The Supreme Court, coming off its decision to overturn the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, has a 7-point net negative rating.??
Of the group, Rep. Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Capitol riot and who serves as vice chair of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, has the ?least bad net negative rating at 6 points.?
Cheney was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger in Wyoming’s GOP primary.
The pessimistic views on Manchin reach across the political spectrum — 40% of Democrats, 31% of Republicans and 30% of independents view him negatively.?
The Mountain State lawmaker also recorded the largest share of voters, 31%, who say they don’t know or weren’t sure how they felt about him, the poll showed, suggesting he was the least-known of the politicians.
The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters between Aug. 12 and 16.
It has a plus/minus 3.1 percentage-point margin of error.
