By Solange Reyner | Thursday, December 18, 2025 02:10 PM EST
Just 18% of voters approve of how congressional Democrats are handling their job, while 73% disapprove—a record low, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.
Still, voters lean slightly toward Democrats when asked who should control the House of Representatives.
“A family squabble spills over into the holidays,” said Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy. “Democratic voters want their party to hold the reins of the House but are not the least bit happy about what they are doing at the moment.”
The poll, published Wednesday, surveyed 1,035 self-identified registered voters nationwide between December 11 and December 15. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points.
Harry Enten, a political analyst, noted that Democrats are “lower than the Dead Sea,” with their approval rating below 20%. He further stated that independents hold Democrats at a negative 61-point mark—meaning disapproval exceeds approval by 61 percentage points.
Quinnipiac first began asking this approval question in 2009. The previous low was in July 2025, when 19% of voters approved of the job Democrats were doing in Congress, while 72% disapproved.
Separate findings show that 35% of voters approve of how Republicans are handling their job in Congress, with 58% disapproving. The top two issues for voters remain the economy (24%) and preserving democracy in the United States (24%), followed by immigration (18%) and healthcare (10%).
On presidential performance, 54% of voters believe President Donald Trump is going too far in using executive power, while 37% think he is handling it about right and 7% feel he isn’t going far enough. Only 40% approve of how Trump is handling his presidency, with 54% disapproving.
