How Low Can Kim Ogg’s Favorability Go?

New Poll. New Pollster. Even Lower Favorability.

Kimbra Ogg, the Harris County District Attorney, is the second best known public official in the county. For most politicians that’s a dream come true. But for Ogg it’s more of a nightmare. According to a recent University of Houston poll, Ogg is—by far—the elected official viewed least favorably by her constituents. 

Just how unfavorably? 

By a ten point margin, Harris County voters view Ogg more unfavorably than favorably. That’s … not great. By comparison, County Commissioner Adrian Garcia’s favorability is net positive 10 points. County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s favorability is net positive 7 points. And Commissioner Rodney Ellis’s favorability is net positive 5 points. 

Even Donald Trump is viewed more favorably among his former constituents than Kim Ogg is by hers, according to a new poll released yesterday from the Harris Poll and Harvard University. The same Harvard-Harris poll found that Joe Biden, whose popularity is at its lowest point in his presidency, is viewed favorably by just 37% of his constituents after battling out-of-control inflation, a global pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. If such a thing could be imagined, Ogg is drowning seven points below Biden’s low water mark—and all of the wars she is facing at home are of her own making.

But, hey, you can’t read too much into any one poll, right? 

Unfortunately for Ogg, this is the third straight poll revealing both her bottom-scraping favorability and her relative positioning as the least popular Harris County elected official. Worse for Ogg, the clear trend-line across the three polls is that as more voters have gotten to know her over the past year, she has become even less popular. Let that sink in: The more people know Kim Ogg, the less they like her. 

Here are the toplines of those two previous polls:

• Back in January, Data For Progress released a poll of 422 Harris County likely voters showing that Ogg had the lowest net favorability of any of Harris County’s top elected Democrats, including especially among women, Black, and Latino/a voters (cross-tabs here). 

• In October 2021, Data For Progress released a poll of 433 likely voters in Harris County, which showed that Kim Ogg had a net negative favorability rating and (as she is today) was the least popular elected official in Harris County.