| Chart of the Day |
| OCTOBER 29, 2026 |
GOVERNMENT & POWER • TRUST IN INSTITUTIONS |
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| 84% of Americans Approved of Congress After 9/11. Today, 14%. |
| Gallup just recorded the lowest pre-midterm approval rating in 52 years of polling, and the election is six days away. |
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| Percentage of Americans who approve of the way Congress is handling its job, measured before each midterm election. The 2001 reading (post-9/11) is included as the all-time peak. |
| Source: Gallup, 2026 |
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| Gallup dropped a number this morning that should make every sitting member of Congress very uncomfortable. Just 14% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. That is the lowest pre-midterm reading in 52 years of polling... and the midterms are six days away. |
| Now, Americans have never loved Congress. The historical average is about 30%. But look at that 2001 column in the chart. After 9/11, approval hit 84%. The country rallied around its institutions. It did not last. By 2006, it was 26%. By 2010, 21%. And from 2014 forward, Congress has never cracked 25% before a midterm again. |
| Here is what most people get wrong. They assume voters hate Congress but still like their guy. That has been true for decades. It is the reason incumbents kept winning even when approval was in the basement. But Gallup’s new data broke that pattern. For the first time in a final pre-midterm reading, fewer than half of voters, just 43%, say their own representative deserves another term. That number used to range between 50% and 69%. It has never been this low. |
| And here’s the part that really gets me. Only 15% of voters say most members of Congress deserve reelection. Fifteen percent. That means 85 out of every 100 voters want to fire nearly the entire building. The last time the numbers looked this bad before an election was 2014, and that year produced a 9-seat swing in the Senate. |
| This is not about one party. Both sides are underwater. When 86% of the country disapproves of the institution that writes the laws, sets the budget, and decides how your tax dollars get spent... that is not a polling blip. That is a verdict. |
