Editor's note: This article was originally published in The Surveyor, YouGov America's email newsletter. It has been revised for publication here. Subscribe to The Surveyor for regular updates on YouGov's polling.

Both congressional Democrats and congressional Republicans are unpopular. But Democrats in Congress are less unpopular than their Republican colleagues according to this week's Economist / YouGov Poll — and that's unusual.

The poll found 34% of Americans view congressional Democrats very or somewhat favorably, and 55% view them unfavorably, a net favorability of -21. Congressional Republicans are viewed favorably by 32% and unfavorably by 58%, a net favorability of -26.

What makes this slim comparative Democratic advantage — disliked, but slightly less disliked — noteworthy is that it's the first time since right before Trump took office in January 2025 that congressional Democrats have had a higher net favorability than congressional Republicans.

Since Economist / YouGov polls began asking this question in 2021, the party of the sitting president has tended to be viewed more favorably than the opposition party. Congressional Democrats were more popular than congressional Republicans for most of Joe Biden's term in office, while congressional Republicans have been more popular since Trump took office — until this week.

This largely isn't due to views from members of the opposite party. Democrats have consistently unfavorable views of congressional Republicans, and Republicans have consistently unfavorable views of congressional Democrats. Any slight increases and decreases in popularity of the other party's members of Congress generally have come in tandem: When Democrats have disliked congressional Republicans slightly less, for the most part the same has been true about Republicans' attitudes toward congressional Democrats.

Instead what it reflects is Americans souring on their own party's congressional representatives when their party is in opposition. When Biden was president, Democrats usually gave higher marks to congressional Democrats than Republicans did to congressional Republicans. In Trump's second term, the reverse has been true.

But what explains the surge in more favorable views about congressional Democrats from Democrats? It's driven by a significant change among the most liberal Americans. In January, when the Economist / YouGov Poll last asked this question, very liberal Americans had a net unfavorable view of congressional Democrats: 41% were favorable and 54% unfavorable, for a net favorability of -13. That was in stark contrast to Americans who say they're liberal but not very liberal. In January, 68% of this group had a favorable view of congressional Democrats and only 30% viewed them unfavorably.

Today, 62% of very liberal Americans view congressional Democrats favorably and 34% view them unfavorably — a net favorability of +28, up from -13.

Americans who are liberal but not very liberal, moderate, conservative but not very conservative, or very conservative have seen little or no change in their net favorability for congressional Democrats.

See the toplines and crosstabs for the March 27 - 30, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll

Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,679 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, geographic region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.

Image: Getty

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