Feinstein approval at record low in California poll

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) approval rating has reached a new low of 30 percent among California voters, including a notable decrease in popularity among women, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday that a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) poll, which the news outlet co-sponsored, found that 30 percent of California voters surveyed approve of Feinstein’s job performance in Congress. Among female voters who responded to the poll, her approval rating was at 33 percent. 

The director of the IGS poll, Mark DiCamillo, told the news outlet that that it is “a very significant and ominous sign for her” to have such low favorability among California women.

Latinos, Asian Americans, those who consider themselves “strongly liberal” and voters under the age of 40 were among the 49 percent of respondents who said they disapproved of the 88-year-old California senator’s job performance, the Times reported.

In comparison, when asked about Sen. Alex Padilla’s (D-Calif.) job performance in Congress, 26 percent of respondents to the poll said they disapproved, while 34 percent said they approved and 40 percent expressed no opinion.

Padilla is up for election in the 2022 midterm election, with The Cook Political Report’s latest Senate seat race ratings considering the seat to be “solid Democrat.” 

The poll also found that California voters remain divided over the job that President Biden is doing, with 48 percent of those surveyed saying they disapprove and 47 percent saying they approve, the Times reported.

Vice President Harris, who previously served as a senator from the state, received lower approval ratings from Californians surveyed, with 38 percent saying they approved of the job she was doing as vice president and 46 percent saying they disapproved, according to the news outlet.

“I get the sense from our polling the state hasn’t really warmed up to her as the sitting vice president,” DiCamillo told the newspaper.

The poll was conducted between Feb. 3 and Feb. 10 and surveyed 8,937 registered voters in California. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.