Of the five federal lawmakers running for president, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz are the most popular among their constituents, according to a new survey.
While the two senators subscribe to diametrically opposite ends of the political spectrum, the latest Morning Consult survey of U.S. voters shows residents of Cruz and Sanders’ home states agree they’re doing a good job in Congress.
Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has a 83 percent job approval rating among voters in the Green Mountain State. He is the most popular member of the U.S. Senate, with only 13 percent of Vermont voters disapproving of his performance.
Click on the chart below to see how the other senators currently running for president measure up:
Cruz has an approval rating of 52 percent and is the second-most popular senator running for president. While 32 percent of Texans disapprove of his performance in the Senate, the Texas Republican is still viewed more favorably than his three Republican colleagues — Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham — who are also vying for the GOP nomination.Both Sanders and Cruz come from states with a greater percentage of voters belonging to their respective political parties.
According to Gallup, 42 percent of Texans are Republicans or Republican-leaning while 37 percent are Democrats or Democratic-leaning. Although Sanders identifies as an independent in the Senate, he is running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination — a party to which 47 percent of his constituents belong. Only 30 percent of Vermont voters identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning, according to Gallup.
The survey of more than 75,000 U.S. voters was conducted from May through mid-November with a median sample size of 1,172 respondents in each state. The margin of error for each candidate’s approval rating varies depending on the number of voters surveyed.
