Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who is a public backer of Donald Trump’s campaign to be president of the United States, has seen his popularity in his own party plummet in recent weeks and is way less popular among Republicans than Trump.
This is according to a pair of polls released in the past few days. A poll released by Bloomberg on Thursday asked Republicans whether Ryan’s views or Trump’s matched their own of “what the Republican Party should stand for.” Of those surveyed, 53 percent preferred Trump’s views to 33 percent for Ryan, who supports Trump’s presidential bid.
If Trump were to lose the election, 24 percent of Republicans surveyed would still want him to be the face of the party, while only 15 percent would like his supporter Ryan for that role.
A YouGov/Economist survey released on Wednesday, meanwhile, found that Ryan’s net favorable rating among Republicans had dropped 28 points over the course of the 10 days following Trump’s attacks against Ryan, who he has accused of not being sufficiently supportive of Trump. Ryan disinvited Trump from a joint rally they were to hold in Wisconsin the day after the tape of Trump boasting about sexual assault came out and has said he would focus his campaign efforts on ensuring the GOP maintains control of Congress but refused to revoke his endorsement of the Republican nominee for president.
Despite Ryan’s continued support of Trump, Republican voters seem to be holding his focus on Congress against him. In that YouGov/Economist poll, Ryan’s popularity among Republicans was down to 40 percent from 54 percent 10 days prior. His unfavorable rating was up to 45 percent, meanwhile.
Some of that may have to do with Trump’s criticism of his supporter. “Our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan, had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty,” Trump said on Twitter after Ryan announced to his caucus that they were free to support whoever they wanted in the election.
Ryan’s overall popularity hasn’t been helped by his lukewarm—though continuous—support of Trump. According to YouGov/Economist, his total favorability had sunk to negative 20 points, while the Bloomberg poll had him at negative nine points.
