Gaetz among least favored Trump Cabinet nominees in new survey

President-elect Trump’s attorney general nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), is among the least favored of his Cabinet nominees, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill on Tuesday.

Gaetz holds a 20 percent favorable rating and a 32 percent unfavorable rating, according to the poll.

The findings come as Gaetz faces an avalanche of negative headlines related to allegations of sexual misconduct. On Monday, an attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News that Gaetz paid two of his clients for sex.

One of those women testified to the committee that she saw Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 at the time, according to the attorney.

Gaetz resigned from Congress last week shortly after Trump tapped him to serve as attorney general. The House Ethics Committee is slated to meet on Wednesday to discuss what happens to the now-defunct report on Gaetz. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for the report to be released due to its relevance to Gaetz’s upcoming confirmation hearings. However, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said he would like the report to remain private given Gaetz’s status as a former lawmaker.

The latest polling also showed relatively low favorable ratings for Trump’s other Cabinet picks, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who he has tapped to serve as his Homeland Security secretary. According to the poll, Noem holds a 19 percent favorable rating and a 22 percent unfavorable rating.

The survey was conducted Nov. 13-14 among 1,732 registered voters by the Harris Poll and HarrisX. Results are weighted for age, gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 2.3 points on a 95 percent confidence level.