In recent polling conducted by the research firm Morning Consult, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who serves in a state that went heavily for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race and will himself be on the ballot next year, got a sky-high level of support from his constituents, especially compared to others.
A full 61 percent of the Montana respondents said they approved of Tester, while only 31 percent disapproved, numbers that made the Montanan the fourth most popular Senator in the country! The top ten included both Democrats and Republicans. Another potentially politically vulnerable Democratic incumbent who will be on Senate ballots next year is Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, whose level of approval also outpaced the level of disapproval among Ohioans — though that approval didn’t reach an overall majority, instead topping out at just 44 percent.
Among the least popular Senators nationally are perhaps unsurprising figures like Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson and Arizona Democrat-turned-independent Kyrsten Sinema. Sinema’s seat will be on the ballot next year, though polling suggests she’d be heavily disfavored to win another term if she runs. The state Democratic Party has already set itself up not to back her, and in Democrats’ primary, current Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego is prominently running.
Much of the Senate’s most recent work has focused on the confirmation of presidential nominees for the judiciary and other positions in government, a process made much smoother by the Democratic majority expanded after the 2022 midterm elections.
Meanwhile, polling of the 2024 presidential race paints a mixed picture but consistently shows incumbent Joe Biden with a strong base of support, and he led in the most recent numbers on the race from this same polling organization. In general, Biden has a substantive record on which to run, having been involved in infrastructure development, support for domestic manufacturing, clean energy expansion, and overseas efforts like a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas combined with the release of some hostages taken by the latter group, a terror organization. Americans were among the hostages Hamas semi-recently took in Israel.
