Denver voters’ opinion of Mayor Mike Johnston continued to decline in a new poll released Thursday, with fully 50% of respondents viewing the first-term city leader unfavorably, according to the Colorado Polling Institute.
But in a seemingly contradictory trend that has continued from last year, a wide plurality of voters still view the city as headed in the right direction. Compared to other figures in city politics, Johnston’s favorability rating outpaced those of his lesser-known opponents in next year’s election — but fell short of congressional candidate Melat Kiros, who had a net-positive rating among voters.
The Colorado Polling Institute’s surveys have found that Johnston’s favorability has steadily fallen since 2024, when 48% said they have a favorable opinion of him and 38% said they viewed him in a negative light. In 2025, 46% saw him favorably and 46% unfavorably. In , 39% of city voters viewed him favorably.
Most voters have consistently said over the years that Johnston, who was elected in 2023, is moving the city in the right direction but that he still needs to do more, according to the results.
“It’s these voters who, early in his term, were saying: ‘I’m seeing some progress. That’s good. I think he needs to do more.’ And as his term has worn on, those voters have become more and more dissatisfied,” said Kevin Ingham, a pollster who is the Democratic half of CPI’s bipartisan research team. “I think we’re just getting to a point in his term where even if people can see something’s moving in the right direction, they don’t feel like the things have moved fast enough or that they have quite lived up to the promises that he made.”
The survey of 400 likely voters in the November election was conducted Aug. 11-15. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
In the 2025 survey, Ingham said most people who reported negative associations with Johnston had specific reasons. This year, nearly half of those surveyed just made general comments about him simply not doing a good job.
About a quarter of those who did approve of his performance cited his work on homelessness as the reason why. His efforts on homelessness had mixed results in the poll overall. When asked about that issue specifically, the share of people saying he has made “significant progress” doubled between 2024 and 2026, from 8% to 16%. However, that’s still lower than the 18% who said this year that Johnston had made homelessness worse.
Homelessness is still seen as voters’ top issue in Denver, followed by affordable housing and crime.
In a statement responding to the poll results, Johnston spokesman Jon Ewing said, “Denverites agree: the city is better today than it was before Mayor Johnston took office. From historic reductions in homelessness and crime to transformative investments in affordable housing and downtown recovery, Denver residents see the progress and believe the city is moving in the right direction, even as they expect us to keep delivering.”
Lori Weigel, the group’s Republican pollster, said it’s difficult for the group to say whether the results might be predictive of the 2027 mayoral election, when Johnston will run for a second term.
“Elections are about choices,” she said. “The focus is not going to be (only) on the mayor — there’s going to be an opponent, there’s going to be a contrast there.”
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Other candidates and issues
As Johnston’s approval decreases, slightly more of Denverites surveyed said they viewed socialism favorably.
In CPI’s 2025 poll, 52% of voters said they had a positive view of socialism. This year it was 55%. The share of respondents who said they have a “very favorable” view of socialism rose from 20% to 25% during that time. About the same share of people reported having a positive view of capitalism — about 47% of respondents — in 2025 and 2026.
“There’s some pretty stark divisions of opinion towards socialism and capitalism by age,” Ingham said. “Younger voters are pretty down on capitalism.”
Voters appeared to be generally dissatisfied with the status quo more than specifically unhappy with capitalism, he said. Most people who mentioned a favorable view of socialism pointed to universal healthcare, a fairer economy and “taxing the rich.”
That’s in line with an electorate that recently chose Kiros, a democratic socialist, as the Democratic nominee for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. Kiros, who made national headlines when she defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in June, also saw a higher favorability rating than DeGette in the recent poll.
Nearly 45% of voters said they viewed her favorably compared to 35% who said the same of DeGette, according to the results. About 30% said they had a negative view of Kiros and nearly 50% said they view DeGette unfavorably.
The pollsters also asked for input about how voters view two of Johnston’s opponents in his upcoming bid for reelection: Lisa Calderón and City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis.
Lewis, whom the Denver chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America just endorsed, had less name recognition and favorability than Calderón, who’s run twice before. About 65% of respondents said they had never heard of Lewis, while 47% said they had never heard of Calderón. Only 15% said they had a favorable view of Lewis and 19% said they had an unfavorable view, with the rest having no opinion. Calderón saw 27% favorability, compared to 25% unfavorability.
Slightly more respondents than last year said they viewed the City Council unfavorably, with 44% reporting negative associations. The Denver Public School Board continues to have a steady low favorability, with only 25% of voters viewing the board and its members in a positive light, according to the results.
Denverites reported that their top three issues for the city are homelessness, affordable housing and crime.
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