More than three-quarters of voters in George Santos’ district say he should resign

More than three-quarters of voters in New York’s 3rd district want the freshman Republican Representative George Santos to resign, according to a new poll.

The Newsday/Siena College poll surveyed 653 registered voters in the district between 23 January and 26 January with a margin of error of 4.4 per cent.

The survey found that 78 per cent of registered voters--including 89 per cent of Democrats, 72 per cent of independents and 71 per cent of Republicans--all want Mr Santos to resign.

Mr Santos has come under intense scrutiny for fabricating major parts of his personal narrative, including where he went to college; that he worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup; his family’s ancestry and a charity that he ran.

“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,” Siena College Poll Director Don Levy said in a statement. “Similarly, voters of every party and every demographic breakdown know who Santos is, are following the news about Santos, and view Santos unfavorably.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he would support the embattled freshman Republican, even though many Republican lawmakers from his home state of New York have said he should resign. Mr McCarthy has said he would support Mr Santos because his constituents voted for him.

But voters who supported Mr Santos in 2022 now say they would not have voted for him had they known what they know by a two-to-one margin.

“While he won the race in November, 63 per cent of those who say they voted for Santos then now say they wouldn’t have voted for him if they knew then what they know today about Santos. Only 31 per cent of those who say they voted for Santos, say they would do it again knowing what they know today,” Mr Levy said. “Furthermore, Santos’ constituents say he cannot be an effective representative, 75-16 per cent. He does ‘best’ with Republicans and only 25 per cent of them think he can be effective in Congress.”

In addition, 71 per cent of voters in the district that encompasses Long Island and Queens said that Mr McCarthy should not have seated Mr Santos on two congressional committees. Mr Santos later recused himself from committees as Republicans sought to boot Representative Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.