Montana State University Billings Tuesday unveiled the outcome of the 39th edition of the Mountain State Poll. Every October, MSUB students spend two weeks calling Montanans to ask questions about politics, hot button issues and policy.
Political science professor Hope Dewell Gentry says this year’s results show high disapproval of political leadership.
“Which I mean in retrospect is not surprising,” said Gentry. “I think we found fairly similar results last year as well where people seem dissatisfied with the status quo and a desire for change, but it just seems stronger this year.”
The poll uses more than 700 replies from people over the phone and online to measure Montanans’ viewpoints.
This year, 65% of all respondents said they disapprove of the performance of the U.S. Congress as a whole. Montana’s congressional delegation also received more disapproval than approval - with the exception of Troy Downing who got a higher number of respondents unsure how they feel about his performance.
Downing is in the lead among respondents in the race for House District 2 and, statewide, 30% of respondents said they’d support Republican Kurt Alme in the race for U.S. Senate, ahead of Independent Seth Bodnar with 26%.
Nearly eight in ten favored term limits for members of Congress.
