Gallup: Paul Ryan's favorability rating hits all-time high at 48 percent

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Nearly half of all Americans have a favorable view of House Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest ratings for the Wisconsin Republican to date, a Gallup poll found.

The poll found 48 percent of Americans have a positive view of Ryan, up from 44 percent in July and August. The poll also found 34 percent of U.S. adults view him unfavorably, which is down from 36 percent in August. About one in five of those polled had never heard of him or have no opinion, Gallup said.

"Considering all that could have gone wrong for Ryan in recent months, the speaker's image is stronger than at any point in Gallup's trend," pollsters said. "He faced a primary challenge from his home district in Wisconsin; his House GOP majority was thought to be imperiled; and, more recently, his chances of re-election as speaker were in question. But Ryan endured it all."

Ryan was renominated as speaker of the House for another two years earlier this week. He was brought in to unite a divide in the party, but was quickly faced with the contentious presidential race that put pressure on him to endorse Donald Trump, now the President-elect. Ryan denounced many of Trump's inflammatory comments during the race, which led to Trump threatening not to endorse the speaker's primary run in Wisconsin. Eventually, Trump and Ryan endorsed one another and now will be working side-by-side in the GOP-controlled government.

As presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's running mate in 2012, Ryan was an unfamiliar face to 58 percent of Americans and had his lowest favorable rating of 25 percent. By 2014, his favorability rating was at 31 percent.

The poll was based on telephone interviews from Nov. 9 to Nov. 13 with a random sample of 1,019 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. There is a 4 percentage point margin of sampling error.