Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is new to Congress. The 29 year old is serving her first term. But neither her newness nor her youth has prevented her from making a big splash on the national scene. She has not been intimidated, and has been quick to make her views known.
That has made her a hero to progressives and a demon to right-wingers. But what does the general public think of her? An Axios / SurveyMonkey Poll tried to answer that question. They surveyed 2,277 adults between January 16th and 18th (and their survey has a margin of error of 3.5 points).
It turns out that 40% of adults have a favorable view of her, while 49% have a negative view. Young people, Blacks, Hispanics, and Democrats have a higher favorable view. Older people, Whites, Independents, and Republicans tend to have an unfavorable view.
That doesn't tell the whole story though. The public still tends to have a negative view of all politicians, and when you compare Ocasio-Cortez to the leaders of both political parties (see charts below) she actually comes out looking pretty good.
Her net approval (figured by subtracting unfavorable % from favorable %) is a negative 9 points. That's better than Pelosi (negative 14), Schumer (negative 19), McConnell (negative 26) and Trump (negative 16). And none of them have a higher favorable rating than Ocasio-Cortez.
I think she's off to a good start. And I think she'll be fighting for progressive causes in Congress for a long time.
