Is This the Least Popular Politician in America?

America's least popular politician is the mayor of a large, economically critical city in a blue state — but not the one who was, until recently, under federal indictment.

Nearly 800 miles west of New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams is fighting to keep his job after the Justice Department moved to drop his corruption case, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has seen his reputation collapse.

A recent poll from M3 Strategies, conducted between February 20 and 21, showed the Democrat — who is just two years into his tenure — with a 6.6 percent approval, one of the worst showings for any major political figure in the country's history.

Johnson took office in May 2023. In October of that year, his approval rating was already down to 28 percent. Those numbers fell to 14 percent a year later, and then halved again in the four months since.

Newsweek reached out to Johnson's office via email for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Which politicians received a lower approval rating?

Johnson's approval rating is lower than scandal-ridden governors, like his fellow Illinoisan Rod Blagojevich, whose approval bottomed out at 8 percent before he was impeached on corruption charges and removed from office in 2009, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who left office in 2018 with 15 percent approval after the "Bridgegate" scandal destroyed his presidential ambitions.

Chicago — and Illinois generally — consistently produces some of the least popular elected officials in the country. But Johnson's numbers are in a league of their own, even more dismal than his predecessor, who ultimately failed to advance to the runoff in her bid for reelection in 2023. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was receiving a relatively robust 48 percent approval at the same point in her term, left office with just 22 percent approval.

Lightfoot's predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, was polling at 18 percent approval rating when he decided not to seek a third term in 2018. Both Lightfoot and Emanuel are also Democrats.

According to a Newsweek analysis, the only elected officeholder who has polled worse than Johnson in modern U.S. history is former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a Democrat who was sitting at just 2 percent approval among Michiganders in 2008. His sharp decline in public approval stemmed from multiple scandals that ultimately led Kilpatrick to resign from office after pleading guilty to felony charges, including obstruction of justice and perjury.

President Donald Trump commuted Kilpatrick's sentence in the final hours of his first term, allowing the former mayor to gain release 20 years early. Trump did not vacate his conviction.

What does this mean for Chicago's mayoral race?

Chicago residents won't elect a new mayor until 2027, but among the potential candidates, Johnson is the least popular likely contenders, with 80 percent of respondents in the M3 poll marking him "unfavorable." While the five other prospective candidates had less name recognition than Johnson, no one was as unpopular as the sitting mayor.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias was the most popular choice, with 49 percent ranking him as favorable, followed by former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas at 41 percent favorable, and Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, at 38 percent. Vallas was the runner-up in Chicago's 2023 mayoral race. He ultimately lost to Johnson in the runoff.

Even the field's lesser-known candidates, state Representative Kam Buckner and Alderman Bill Conway, had higher favorability ratings with 18 and 15 percent, respectively. While 35 percent and 42 percent of respondents said they had never heard of Buckner and Conway, only 1 percent had never heard of Johnson.

Asked if the election were held today, only 8.2 percent said they would reelect Johnson. Comparably, 27.4 percent would vote for Vallas, 21 percent for Giannoulias and 11.7 percent for Mendoza.

Why is Mayor Johnson so unpopular?

The poll found that crime was, far and away, the top issue for Chicagoans, with 67 percent ranking it as the city's biggest problem. The other major issues reported by respondents included high taxes (54 percent), inflation (41 percent) and immigration (24 percent).

Crime in Chicago has been on the rise in recent years. Although murders in the city dropped 29 percent between 2021 and 2024, other crimes, including robbery, burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft all rose over the same time period.

Arrest rates for violent crimes have also declined. In 2024, arrests were made in about 1 in 7 violent crime cases, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, continuing a downward trend over the past two decades. Johnson has instituted several controversial crime-related policies, including discontinuing the city's contract with ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system that had been in use since 2012.

Overall, the number of major felony offenses in the city (which include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny of a motor vehicle) climbed 44 percent between 2021 and 2024.