- Santos Viewed Unfavorably by 83% of Voters; Only 7% View Him Favorably
- 75% of Voters Say He Cannot Be Effective in Congress; 71% Say Speaker McCarthy Was Wrong to Appoint Santos to Congressional Committees
Loudonville, NY. By a margin of 78-13%, voters in New York’s 3rd Congressional District overwhelmingly say freshman Republican Representative George Santos should resign, including 89% of Democrats, 72% of independents and 71% of Republicans. His constituents view him unfavorably 83-7%, including 78% of Republicans who view Santos unfavorably, according to a new Newsday/Siena College poll of registered
NY 3 voters released today.
Three-quarters of voters do not think Santos can be an effective representative for the people of the district, and 71% say it was wrong for US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to have seated Santos on two congressional committees. By a two-to-one margin, voters who say they voted for Santos in November, now say they would not have voted for him had they known then what they know now about Santos.
“NY 3 voters overwhelmingly and unambiguously say Rep. Santos should resign. Whether you look it at by party, gender, race, age, religion, income, or which county the voters live in, the answer is the same: resign,” Siena College Poll Director Don Levy said. “Similarly, voters of every party and every demographic breakdown know who Santos is, are following the news about Santos, and view Santos unfavorably.”
Santos was recently quoted as saying, “He wouldn’t resign until the 142,000 people that voted for him, ask him to resign.” McCarthy recently said, “You know why I’m standing by him? Because his constituents voted for him.”
“Well, last week Siena reported how the voters of New York State feel about Santos – 59% want him to resign and 56% view him unfavorably. Those numbers were even higher in the downstate suburbs,” Levy said. “And this week, along with Newsday, we find that in the district in which he was elected just months ago, his constituents view him unfavorably and they don’t want him to continue serving in Congress – by huge bipartisan margins rarely seen in today’s divided political climate.”
“While he won the race in November, 63% of those who say they voted for Santos then now say they wouldn’t have voted for him if they knew then what they know today about Santos. Only 31% of those who say they voted for Santos, say they would do it again knowing what they know today,” Levy said. “Furthermore, Santos’ constituents say he cannot be an effective representative, 75-16%. He does ‘best’ with Republicans and only 25% of them think he can be effective in Congress.
“There seems to be little partisan disagreement when it comes to Santos. Overall, his constituents say McCarthy was wrong to appoint him to committees 71-17%, and even Republicans – by a two-to-one margin – say McCarthy was wrong,” Levy said.
“On the issue of whether Santos does or does not reflect the values of the Republican party there is a little partisan divide. Overall, 55% say Santos does not represent the values of the Republican party, including 74% of Republicans and 56% of independents who agree. However, by a narrow 46-43% margin, Democrats say Santos does reflect the values of the GOP,” Levy said.
Voters in NY 3 have unfavorable views of Donald Trump (29-66%), Joe Biden (45-50%), Kevin McCarthy (30-52%), and Kathy Hochul (41-48%), while they view Lee Zeldin (42-38%) and Hakeem Jeffries (36-24%) favorably. By an overwhelming 66-25% margin, voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Voters that say they voted for Santos in November say that he should resign by 58-34%. While those that voted for Democrat Robert Zimmerman support resignation by 94-4%, those that say they voted for “another candidate” – there wasn’t one – and those that refused to say who they voted for, support Santos resigning by 75-10%.
“Talk about buyers’ remorse. NY 3 voters elected George Santos by a comfortable margin not even three months ago. But today, the vast majority of his new constituents – including the vast majority of those who voted for him – want him gone,” Levy said. “Discouragingly, three-quarters or more of voters of every party say that Santos’ behavior and now his refusing to resign show that our political system is broken, not that his behavior says little about the state of our politics.”
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This Newsday/Siena College Poll was conducted January 23-26, 2023, among 653 NY03 registered voters. Telephone calls were conducted in English and respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest person in the household. Telephone sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and cell phone telephone numbers weighted to reflect known population patterns. The landline telephone and cell phone sample was obtained from L2 Voter Registration File. Data from collection modes was statistically adjusted by age, party by county, race/ethnicity, education, and gender to ensure representativeness. It has an overall margin of error
of +/- 4.4 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social, and cultural research primarily in NYS. SCRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Don Levy at (518) 783-2901 or (518) 944-0482. For survey crosstabs: www.Siena.edu/SCRI/SNY
