Little change in Grassley, Ernst approval ratings

More than half of all U.S. senators, including Iowa's Sen. Chuck Grassley, have seen their favorability ratings take a hit since spring.

Sen. Joni Ernst's favorability rating remained constant in polls from April and July, and Grassley's 4 point dip is well within the margin of error in the most recent Morning Consult Senate Approval Rankings.

The ratings showed Grassley with a 56/35 approval/disapproval rating in April, up from 54/32 in September 2016. But that has slipped to 52/35, with a 3 point margin of error in the most recent poll.

The rankings are based on more than 140,000 interviews with registered voters nationwide conducted from April 1 through June 18.

For Ernst, her approval ranking remained steady at 47 percent in September, April and July with her disapproval rating bouncing from 34 in September to 37 percent in April before dropping to 35, with an 3 point margin of error, Morning Consult reported.

More than half of all senators saw negative swings in net approval outside of the margins of error in their respective states. Some of the biggest drops came among GOP senators in reliably red states and Democrats in safely blue ones.

The senators with the highest approval ratings were, for the most part, from states with relatively homogeneous political makeups such as Vermont, Hawaii and South Dakota.

Some of those with the lowest approval ratings came from more 'purple” states like Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada.

Neither Grassley nor Ernst commented for this article.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com