The most popular politician in the United States is not President Donald Trump, according to data analysed by an American journalist. The most favoured US politician is Senator Bernie Sanders.

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G. Elliott Morris, who shared the analysis on his website, determined the favourability by collecting questions from YouGov/Economist polls in the last three months, which asked voters how they viewed prominent political figures or possible candidates for the 2028 presidential elections.

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Morris, a data-driven journalist known for his work on election polling and predictions, explained, “Then I picked out notable figures, and graphed their net favorability rating (the share of adults saying they viewed the person/party favorably minus share saying they viewed the person/party unfavorably) in the most recent result.”

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The most popular politician in US

The analysis pointed out that Senator Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the US and not Trump. Sanders has a favourability of 46 per cent in adults, while 39 per cent view him unfavourably. He is also popular among young people (by nearly 20 points), lower-income voters, moderates, independents, Hispanics, Black voters, and men. With white voters, he is only two points underwater.

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According to Morris, “One theory for Sanders’ relative crossover appeal is his emphasis on criticism of the system — something young men in particular shared with him in 2016, and which left them open to the appeal of Trumpism in 2024 (especially post-inflation in 2022-2023). Sanders’s campaigning against the neoliberal consensus is persuasive with the many voters (and again, especially young people) that believe has left them behind.”

“Trump was the voice for this cohort in 2024, as Sanders was in the 2016 primary (and to a certain extent in the 2016 general). Maybe Democrats can learn something from that,” he added.

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The analysis also revealed that Elon Musk is the most unpopular GOP-aligned major official. It further said that Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pete Buttigieg are more popular than Trump and his vice president, JD Vance.

(With inputs from agencies)