BOMBSHELL: 73 Percent Of Voters Reject Democrats In…
Democrats in Congress have just hit a political low that few could have predicted. According to a new Quinnipiac University poll, only 18% of voters approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, while a staggering 73% disapprove, making it the worst job approval rating Quinnipiac has ever recorded for them.
The survey, conducted between December 11 and 15 and released Wednesday, included responses from 1,035 registered voters and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points.
This is not just a minor dip—it is a historic collapse of voter confidence in Democratic congressional leadership. According to Quinnipiac, this is the lowest rating since they began polling the question 16 years ago.
Digging deeper into the numbers reveals even more trouble for the party. Only 43% of Democrats themselves approve of how their party is doing in Congress, while 48% disapprove.
Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy put it bluntly: “A family squabble spills over into the holidays. Democratic voters want their party to hold the reins of the House but are not the least bit happy about what they are doing at the moment.”
It’s a telling sign when even Democrats can’t muster majority support for their own congressional delegation. That’s not a partisan problem—it’s a leadership problem.
Despite the grim ratings, the poll found that 47% of voters said they would like Democrats to win back control of the House, while 43% said they prefer the GOP to maintain control.
Yet that modest advantage is sharply contradicted by job approval numbers. According to Quinnipiac, Democrats now sit 55 points underwater in net approval.
CNN’s Harry Enten captured the public sentiment with brutal clarity. “Democrats in the minds of the American public are lower than the Dead Sea,” he said on air.
Enten explained further: “Overall, they are 55 points underwater; their approval rating is south of 20%. It’s even worse when you look at independents… negative 61 points.”
That means independent voters disapprove of Democrats in Congress by a margin of more than 6 to 1.
Republicans in Congress are not faring much better, though they have maintained some footing. 35% of voters approve of how Republicans in Congress are handling their jobs, while 58% disapprove.
However, GOP unity remains strong. 77% of Republicans approve of the job their own party is doing in Congress, compared to just 18% who disapprove.
That level of internal support may prove critical in 2026, especially as Democrats face unrest within their own base.
NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella summed it up with a jab: “18% approval is what you get when a party mistakes chaos for leadership. House Democrats have turned incompetence into an art form, and voters are responding with a historic thumbs-down.”
The dissatisfaction goes beyond Congress. President Donald Trump’s approval rating stood at 40%, with 54% disapproving according to the same Quinnipiac survey.
Among those polled, 54% said Trump is going too far, 37% said he’s handling things about right, and 7% said he’s not going far enough.
On the issues, the economy and preserving democracy tied as the most important to voters, each at 24%, followed by immigration at 18% and healthcare at 10%.
Other topics failed to register above 10%, showing that economic and national stability remain dominant concerns heading into the 2026 midterms.
The Democratic Party’s losses in 2024—including the White House, Senate, and failure to reclaim the House—have left it scrambling to reestablish credibility.
Even recent gains in special elections haven’t offset the brutal poll numbers, which point to a broader lack of voter trust in the party’s direction.
As voters increasingly see Democrats as ineffective or out of touch, the Quinnipiac results suggest an uphill battle lies ahead for party leaders like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.
With Trump’s agenda moving forward and Republicans tightening control of their base, Democrats may face even steeper declines if they fail to course-correct.
IT ALL CAME OUT' – GAVIN NEWSOM BLOWS UP AFTER BEING EXPOSED LIVE ON AIR
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the 2028 presidential election cycle rapidly approaches, life is getting increasingly complicated for California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The ambitious Democrat, widely expected to declare his candidacy for his party's highest nomination, is currently drowning in a massive, rapidly expanding ethics scandal centered on hundreds of millions of dollars in questionable corporate donations. As federal investigators continue to circle both the governor and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the sheer scale of his fundraising tactics is raising serious alarm bells across the political spectrum.
At the absolute center of this controversy is Newsom’s unprecedented and unapologetic use of "behested payments"—a controversial practice in California law that allows elected officials to personally solicit massive, unlimited donations from deep-pocketed corporations, wealthy individuals, and labor unions to fund specific charities or government initiatives.
While technically legal under the state's highly permissive rules, government watchdogs and ethics experts are fiercely arguing that these payments represent a glaring, dangerous loophole. It essentially allows special interests—many of whom have active, highly lucrative business before the state of California—to gain massive political influence and curry favor with the governor, entirely outside the strict boundaries of traditional campaign finance laws.
The $347 Million Man
According to official California disclosure records, the scale at which Newsom utilizes this loophole is utterly staggering. Since 2011, Newsom has reported soliciting more than $347 million in behested payments.
To put that massive figure into perspective, data from the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) reveals that all elected officials statewide combined directed roughly $556 million in behested payments between 2011 and 2026. Newsom alone accounted for nearly two-thirds—a whopping 62%—of that total.
By stark contrast, his predecessor, former Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, reportedly solicited a relatively modest $35 million in behested payments during his entire tenure.
"Behested payments are ripe for abuse," warned Sean McMorris of California Common Cause, pointing out the obvious ethical minefield created when powerful elected officials lean on organizations that have direct business before the government.
The Optics of Influence Peddling
The ethical concerns are not just hypothetical; they are rooted in a pattern of massive corporate donations followed by highly favorable state actions.
Public reports have raised serious questions about several major donors who opened their checkbooks at Newsom's behest and later benefited immensely from state contracts or policy decisions. For example, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare giant Blue Shield donated a staggering $20 million to initiatives heavily supported by Newsom. Shortly thereafter, the corporation was miraculously awarded a highly lucrative, no-bid state contract related to vaccine distribution.
Similarly, the Kaiser Foundation contributed nearly $10 million before securing a significantly expanded role in California’s massive Medi-Cal program. In another instance, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria donated millions to organizations associated with the governor and his wife’s initiatives. Later, they benefited significantly from favorable state decisions involving tribal gaming matters, including efforts to block a rival casino from opening nearby.
While proving an explicit, legal quid pro quo is notoriously difficult, critics argue that the actual transaction is irrelevant. The concern is that the system inherently encourages and rewards a "pay-to-play" culture. Assemblyman David Tangipa slammed the practice, describing behested payments as a blatant form of "political influence peddling," boldly arguing that just because the system is legal does not mean it isn't deeply corrupt.
The Family Business and Federal Heat
The issue has drawn even fiercer scrutiny because millions of these corporate dollars have been funneled directly into organizations tightly linked to the governor’s inner circle. Approximately $4.8 million in behested donations were routed to the California Partners Project, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. For many critics, corporate money flowing into a charity run by the governor's wife creates, at the very least, a glaring appearance of a massive conflict of interest.
The intense debate over this influence-peddling loophole comes at a highly precarious time for the governor. Newsom recently acknowledged that both he and his wife are currently the subjects of multiple, ongoing federal investigations. While neither has been charged with any wrongdoing, and the Department of Justice has remained completely tight-lipped about the exact nature of the inquiries, the specter of a federal probe casts a dark cloud over his 2028 presidential ambitions.
A "Laughable Slap on the Wrist"
Adding insult to injury for government transparency advocates, Newsom recently agreed to pay a $31,500 ethics fine handed down by the state's campaign finance watchdog, the FPPC. The fine was levied after the commission found that Newsom flagrantly failed to legally report 36 separate behested payments—totaling more than $5.6 million—within the required 30-day timeframe.
The late disclosures involved massive corporate donations solicited during the 2024 and 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, pulling in vast sums from corporate titans like BlackRock, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Anthem Blue Cross. While Newsom's office brushed off the violation as a mere paperwork oversight during an emergency, critics blasted the $31,500 penalty as a "laughable slap on the wrist" for a wealthy politician manipulating a quarter-billion-dollar shadow fundraising system. This marks the second time Newsom has been fined for late reporting of these payments, having previously paid a $13,000 fine in 2024.
Supporters of the governor are quick to point out that these behested donations have funded critical public initiatives, including wildfire relief and charitable causes. However, the public benefit of those projects does absolutely nothing to eliminate the massive concerns surrounding transparency, corporate influence, and the ability of powerful special interests to funnel unlimited cash into causes promoted by the state's most powerful executive.
As Newsom attempts to position himself as the future of the Democratic Party, the growing scandal surrounding his $347 million loophole is forcing a national reckoning. The American people are left to wonder: if this is how Gavin Newsom runs California, how exactly would he run the country?
