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March 10 (UPI) -- Gallup said Tuesday that U.S. congressional Republicans have a more favorable job approval rating than Democrats after impeachment of President Donald Trump in the U.S. House of Representatives. Forty percent of U.S. adults approve of the job congressional Republicans are doing compared to 35 percent that approve of congressional Democrats performance, the poll showed.
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Congressional Democrats in general have had slightly higher job approval on average since 1999, but Republicans have edged out Democrats a number of times over the 21-year-trend, polling figures show.
The most recent poll shows the job approval rating of Republicans in Congress has risen 6 percentage points since another poll was taken in October, before the House of Representatives impeached Trump in December on charges of abuse of power of the presidency and obstructing Congress. The Senate voted 52-48 last month to acquit Trump on both charges with Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, as the lone Republican to break ranks and vote to convict on the abuse of power charge.
Majorities of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents approved of the job their own party's members of Congress were doing as well as majorities of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Still, Republicans' approval of congressional Republicans jumped 13 percentage points to 76 percent since October, and Democrats 65 percent approval of congressional Democrats only increased 1 percentage point from October.
Trump's job approval rating is still higher than it was before impeachment at 47 percent in a February poll released earlier this month, up from 41 percent in October.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's job approval rating among Republicans alone jumped 15 percentage points to 62 percent in February from 47 percent in October. Democrats approval of McConnell has slightly lowered from 11 percent to 8 percent and his overall approval rating is 33 percent.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received a 71 percent approval rating from her party in February, up 4 percentage points from October, but support among Republicans remained flat at only 8 percent approval since October. However, her unfavorability rating rose from 50 percent in October to now 55 percent.
Pelosi's overall approval rating is 39 percent.
An exception to Republican support of its own congressional party members this year was Romney, who was viewed more favorably by Democrats than Republicans. After breaking ranks with his party in one of two charges in the Senate impeachment trial, 56 percent of Democrats approve of his performance compared to 23 percent of Republicans.
Gallup Research Consultant Megan Brenan said in a statement the major reason for the higher approval of Republicans job performance was the party's higher approval of its own party.
"Republicans in Congress appear to have benefited from the impeachment of the president, as they are currently enjoying improved job approval ratings," Brenan said. "Likewise, the favorable ratings of Republicans Trump and McConnell have risen after impeachment. Meanwhile, the public's ratings of congressional Democrats and Democratic leaders are the same or slightly worse than before impeachment, given no change in favorability or approval but higher unfavorable and disapproval ratings."
Gallup interviewed a random sample of 1,020 adults across the United States from Feb. 17-28 for this survey with a 4 percentage point margin of error.
