The next time Republicans in Congress decide to oppose President Trump based on his supposed low approval ratings, they may want to check their own first. A new survey of 1,000 likely voters by the Eagle Forum and the Center for Security Policy reveals that 63 percent of respondents believe it's time for new Republican leadership in Washington. The survey explicitly asked about replacing House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and strong majorities among all parties and demographics agreed it's time for Ryan and McConnell to go.
In fact, Republicans were the harshest on their own, as 68 percent of GOP voters said it's time for new leadership in Congress. That compares with 63 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Independents who want to replace Ryan and McConnell.
The numbers aren't necessarily surprising, considering the GOP's failure to deliver so far on most of Trump's key agenda items, like repealing Obamacare, passing tax reform or funding a border wall with Mexico. "The expectation of Republican primary voters after the election was that a conservative agenda would move through Congress---that has not happened," says Cal Jillson, political science professor at Southern Methodist University. "Now there's a great deal of angst in that Republican electorate and in the country at large."
That angst could spell major trouble for the GOP in next year's midterm elections. "There was a major study by Roll Call in Washington D.C. this week that moved 16 Congressional races in the 2018 election cycle in the Democrat direction," says Jillson. "2018 is going to be big, but right now it's hard to know how big because things are so fluid."