Approval of the Congress is up roughly 1.6 points from where it was a year ago and disapproval is down 5.8 points.
| Approve | Disapprove | |
|---|---|---|
| Real Clear Pol. 11/23/22 | 23.8% | 62.8% |
| Real Clear Pol. 10/13/22 | 25.3% | 65.8% |
| Real Clear Pol. 8/30/22 | 20.6% | 67.4% |
| Real Clear Pol. 8/2/22 | 19.6% | 71.0% |
| Real Clear Pol. 6/15/22 | 21.2% | 69.0% |
| Real Clear Pol. 5/17/22 | 22.4% | 68.0% |
| Real Clear Pol. 4/16/22 | 22.2% | 67.5% |
| Real Clear Pol. 3/15/22 | 21.8% | 67.8% |
| Real Clear Pol. 2/18/22 | 20.8% | 68.3% |
| Real Clear Pol. 1/17/22 | 22.4% | 66.4% |
| Real Clear Pol. 12/21/21 | 23.0% | 65.8% |
| Real Clear Pol. 11/30/21 | 22.2% | 68.6% |
The House of Representatives
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), age 52, has been elected, unopposed, to become the minority leader of the Democrats in the House. He replaces Nancy Pelosi (82), the first female Speaker of the House, who decided to retire from leadership.
Jeffries is the first Black lawmaker to lead a political party’s caucus in either chamber. Jeffries was first elected to the House in 2012.
Jeffries will be joined in leadership by Rep. Katherine Clark, (D-MA), age 59, as the new minority whip. She was also elected to the House in 2012. And Pete Aguilar (D-CA), age 43, will serve as the Democratic Caucus Chair. He was first elected to the House in 2015. This is the first time that either caucus has selected a white, a woman, and a Hispanic at the same time as its leadership group.
A new position of Assistant Democratic Leader was created for Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) (82). Another new role has been created for Ted W. Lieu (D-CA) (53) as Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Lieu was first elected in 2015.
The Republican Caucus has elected Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (57) as its continuing leader. He was first elected to the House in 2006.
There will be a vote for Speaker of the House when the Congress reconvenes in January 2023. The open question at the moment is whether McCarthy will be able to corral a majority of the members of the House; he needs 218 votes. His position is increasingly shaky with one or more members of his caucus announcing that they are running against him.
Washington Watch uses the report by David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report for its report on elections in the U.S. House of Representatives. (The informal report as of 11/27/22.)
- Republicans – 222 seats
- Democrats – 213 seats
The Senate
The re-election of Senator Raphael Warnock over Herschel Walker on December 6th in the special runoff election in Georgia, will make life a lot easier for the Democratic majority in the Senate, especially give the loss of the Democratic majority in the House in the general election on November 6th.
With the Democrats’ 51 to 49 majority in the Senate, no longer will Vice President Harris need to be on standby in case of a close vote. Democrats will now control a majority in every Senate committee, making it easier when it comes to approving legislative proposals or sending various nominations to the floor, especially Judicial nominees.
With 99% of the votes counted, Warnock led by 97,000 votes with a total of 3,537,333 cast in the election – 1,817,465 to 1,719,868.
With his election by his caucus on November 16th, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell is the longest serving party leader in U.S. history. McConnell was challenged by U.S. Senator Rick Scott of Florida (in his first term). McConnell won 37-10.