Poll: Less Than Half Of Democrats Want Pelosi As The Party's Leader
(CNN) -- Almost three in five Americans said they'd prefer another Democrat as speaker of the House over past party leader Nancy Pelosi, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
As Pelosi campaigns in the House to regain her title as speaker, Republicans and even some Democrats on Capitol Hill have mobilized against her. Among Democrats in the poll, more would prefer a different leader.
In CNN's post-election poll, respondents who participated in a survey from just before the election were called back. Only 30% of Americans said they want Pelosi to be speaker. Even Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are split -- 44% back her and 46% want another Democrat to take the lead.
In a CNN/ORC poll from after the 2010 election, when Republicans seized control of the House and Pelosi lost her role as speaker, 45% said they wanted her to continue as the Democratic leader in the House and 47% preferred another Democrat. Among all Americans in 2010, 66% said they wanted another Democrat and 25% said they preferred Pelosi. Despite that opposition, Pelosi has remained the top Democrat in the House for Democrats during the intervening eight years, and now that they have regained the majority, she is primed to retake the speaker's gavel.
In CNN's national exit poll this year, 31% of voters had a favorable opinion of Pelosi and 56% said they have a negative view of her. Democrats are more likely to view Pelosi as favorable -- around 59% said they have a positive view of her -- while 89% of Republicans see her negatively. Independents veer negative as well -- 27% said they have a favorable opinion and 57% unfavorable.
Even for President Donald Trump -- who has a relatively poor approval rating, historically -- 89% of Republicans approved of the job he was doing in CNN's pre-election survey, showing great party loyalty. Pelosi does not enjoy anywhere near that level of support among Democrats.
This CNN poll was conducted by SSRS by re-interviewing 677 adults who participated in a nationally representative pre-election survey. Those participating in the poll were originally interviewed from November 1 through 3, callback interviews took place between November 8 and 12. Results for all respondents reached in the callback survey have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
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