New polling on embattled Rep. George Santos, who represents the 3rd Congressional District of New York, finds that the vast majority of his constituents now want him to resign, as the Republican tells party leaders that he is temporarily stepping back from his committee assignments.
According to polling by Newsday/Siena College released on Tuesday, a whopping 78 percent of Santos’s constituents say that he should step down from Congress, including 89 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of independents and 71 percent of Republican respondents. Only 13 percent of his constituents think that he shouldn’t resign.
Further, among respondents who said that they voted for Santos, 63 percent said they would not have voted for him if they knew then what they know now, as new allegations about the Republican’s serial lying habit and potential campaign finance improprieties have been coming out weekly.
The poll results skewer House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-California) justification for not pressuring Santos to resign. McCarthy has repeatedly said that he is supporting Santos because his constituents voted him into office, ignoring the fact that his constituents voted for someone with a resume and life history that were later revealed to have been completely falsified.
“NY 3 voters overwhelmingly and unambiguously say Rep. Santos should resign,” said Siena College Poll Director Don Levy. “Whether you look it at by party, gender, race, age, religion, income, or which county the voters live in, the answer is the same: resign.”
“Talk about buyers’ remorse,” Levy continued. “NY 3 voters elected George Santos by a comfortable margin not even three months ago. But today, the vast majority of his new constituents — including the vast majority of those who voted for him — want him gone.”
The polling further found that constituents overwhelmingly think it was wrong for Republican leadership to appoint Santos to his committee assignments. Seventy-one percent of respondents said it was wrong of McCarthy to allow Santos to serve on committees, while only 17 percent said it was the correct move.
The news of Santos’s deep unpopularity with his own constituents — with a mere 7 percent viewing him favorably — emerges as Santos is stepping down from committees and as the several investigations into his questionable campaign finance practices and other improprieties are ongoing.
Santos told House Republicans on Tuesday that he is temporarily backing away from his assignments on the Small Business Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee, telling colleagues that his presence is “a distraction,” one anonymous Republican source told The Washington Post. This announcement is the first major move from Santos after over a month of calls for him to resign, which he has rebuffed time and again.
McCarthy has said that the only way he would support removing Santos is if the House Ethics Committee found that Santos had been involved in illegal conduct — but McCarthy is likely not concerned about the potential illegality of Santos’s actions, nor is he one to hold sacred the will of voters, as someone who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Rather, commentators have noted, McCarthy is likely mindful of the very slim margin by which he holds a majority in the House, which could shrink even smaller if Santos was removed.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.