Minnesota Poll: Congressional Democrats get low marks from suburban voters

More than half of Minnesota voters disapprove of how members of Congress are doing their jobs, and their views are highly polarized along ideological lines, a new poll finds.

Members of Congress from both parties are less popular than Republican President Donald Trump and DFL Gov. Tim Walz.

Congressional Republicans have a 39% approval rating compared to 56% of respondents who disapprove, according to the Star Tribune/Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication Minnesota Poll. Only 33% of respondents reported approving of Democrats compared to 62% who disapprove of the way they’ve handled their jobs.

Tim Leon, 65, of Windom said he approved of Republicans’ efforts in Congress but felt Democrats are “not willing to talk with the other side.”

“I don’t see anybody being perfect in this,” Leon said, “but I ... appreciate what’s being done with the Republicans more than I do with what’s going on with the Democrats.”

Leon said Democrats won’t listen to Republicans.

(Scroll to the end of this article for full results for each question. More information about the poll methodology, a demographic breakdown of the sample and a map of the poll regions can be found at startribune.com/methodology.)

Barbara Keating, 76, of Mankato said she is far more disappointed in Republicans than Democrats.

“The Democrats, I think, are doing the best they can,” Keating said, “and Republicans are just falling over and bowing down and catering to Trump.”

Keating, a retired professor, noted President Richard Nixon was urged by a group of Republicans to resign following the Watergate scandal.

“Where are the Republicans doing that now?” Keating said.

This poll’s findings are based on interviews with 800 Minnesota registered voters conducted from June 16 to 18. The poll’s margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Voters in greater Minnesota had a more favorable view of Republicans in Congress while Hennepin and Ramsey counties strongly disapproved of the GOP. In the suburbs outside of Hennepin and Ramsey counties, voters were divided on Republicans in Congress, but less than a third approved of Democrats.

Since the 119th Congress began in January, federal lawmakers have passed little legislation, taking a backseat as Trump attempts to enact sweeping policies on everything from immigration to education via executive order.

In March, Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the government and avert a shutdown. Now, Republicans are trying to approve a budget bill pushed by Trump that would significantly reduce Medicaid and nutrition spending and extend income tax cuts. It passed the U.S. House by a single vote. In the U.S. Senate, it faces pushback not only from Democrats but some Republicans who have voiced opposition to Medicaid cuts.

While congressional Republicans have a 88% approval rating among members of their own party and respondents who lean Republican, Democrats aren’t as happy with their elected leaders. The poll finds 56% of Democratic respondents approve of congressional Democrats.

Northfield resident Ryan Dawkins, 40, a poll respondent who is an associate professor of political science at Carleton College, said he understood Democrats’ power is limited since they don’t have a majority in Congress, but they don’t have a coherent message.

“They think they’re playing a game for which there’s rules,” Dawkins said, “and the Republicans are just like, ‘We’re not even playing the same game as you’ and it seems like the Democrats don’t even care, or they don’t even realize it.”

As the minority party, he said, they need to be throwing “a lot more sand into the gears of governance” to make a serious stand against Trump and Republicans. He wasn’t sure Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — both Democrats from New York — were up to the job of leading the party in Congress.

While the poll showed members of Congress are unpopular in Minnesota, Kathryn Pearson, an associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, said the 39% and 33% favorability ratings were actually fairly high. Pearson said Congress can often face favorability ratings as low as the teens, but she said Congress’ popularity could decline even more over U.S. involvement in Iran and conflict over the budget bill. The poll was taken before the Trump administration launched attacks on Iran.

She said while political polarization is not new, the poll shows it at extreme levels.

“People’s animosity toward the other party is at an all-time high,” she said, “and so I think we’re seeing that reflected in these numbers.”

Democrats’ comparatively weaker support among members of their own party can likely be attributed to their struggle to message their opposition to Trump, Pearson said.

“I think there’s the sense among many Democrats,” she said, “that Democratic leaders in Congress and Democrats in Congress have not found a way to effectively challenge President Trump’s agenda or challenge the agenda of Republicans in Congress.”

Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy Inc. interviewed 800 Minnesota registered voters between June 16 and June 18, 2025. Findings from questions about congressional Democrats and Republicans are below. Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Details about how the poll was conducted, the demographics of the 800 respondents and a map of the Minnesota regions used in this poll can be found at startribune.com/methodology.