Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s favorability rating fell 7 percentage points over the past year, while the City Council’s favorability rating dropped 3 percentage points, a new poll has found.

A little more than a year after taking office, Johnston had enjoyed a 48% favorability rating among likely voters. That declined to 46% in 2025, sliding to 39% in 2026, according to a new Colorado Polling Institute poll.

Half of likely voters hold an unfavorable opinion of him, up 4 percentage points from last year.

The City Council’s favorability rating climbed from 34% in 2024 to 41% in 2025 but it fell to 38% in 2026.

“Voters who hold a favorable view of the mayor are largely anchored by the view that he is ‘getting things done’ or at least trying hard to move the city in a positive direction, especially homelessness,” Lori Weigel, a New Bridge Strategy pollster, said in a statement.

“However, that support is increasingly being challenged by growing voter frustration regarding a perceived lack of meaningful progress on a number of issues and wasting funds on social programs or ill-fated ventures such as Colfax transit,” Weigel said.

CPI is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that has been conducting polls since 2023 to provide public opinion research on issues facing Coloradans.

The findings come as more Denver voters identify as socialists, a shift that follows Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros’ stunning primary victory over longtime U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette.

Seventeen percent of Denver voters now identify as socialists, compared with 11% in 2024.

Political consultants from both sides of the aisle told The Denver Gazette that the shift could be contributing to voter discontent with the mayor and City Council.

“People want to see dramatic change,” Van Schoales, senior policy director of the Keystone Policy Center, said.

Wealth gaps, rising voter expectations and growing anti-incumbent sentiment are helping fuel the rise of socialists and pushing the Democratic Party further left, Schoales said.

Keystone is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to bring people together to solve difficult public policy problems, according to the group’s website.

Among the poll’s findings:

• Six in 10 voters say Johnston has made either “significant progress” addressing the city’s challenges (8%) or has “started moving things in the right direction” (51%)
• Twenty-four percent say he hasn’t made any progress and 17% say he has made things worse
• Roughly half of voters (49%) say Denver is headed in the right direction, compared with 39% of respondents who said it isn’t
• Nearly six in 10, or 57%, say Johnston has made progress tackling the city’s homelessness problem, up from 52% two years ago

The mayor’s office pointed to the poll’s bright spots.

“Denverites agree: the city is better today than it was before Mayor Johnston took office,” Jon Ewing, a Johnston spokesperson, said in a statement.

“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,” he said.

Johnston’s numbers appear to be on a downward trajectory — despite voters’ relatively optimistic views of the city.

One notable exception is the economy. Among likely voters, 43% said Johnston has made no progress addressing jobs and the economy.

“I think this is another indication of just how far left the Democratic Party is moving,” said Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado Republican Party chairman.

That explains why a liberal consensus seeker like Johnston appears to be losing ground in blue Denver, Wadhams said.

Johnston, still in his first term, already has his sights set on a second, making his sliding poll numbers particularly notable as the 2027 mayoral race takes shape.

For now, his prospective opponents — Lisa Calderón and Shontel Lewis — lack broad name recognition.

Calderón, who is making her third run for mayor, is viewed favorably by 27% of likely voters and unfavorably by 25%.

Calderón has a background in academia and social policy and previously served as chief of staff to former Councilmember Candi CdeBaca and as executive director of Emerge Colorado, which trains Democratic women to run for office.

Lewis, who was recently endorsed in her bid for mayor by the Democratic Socialists of America chapter, serves on the Denver City Council. She is viewed favorably by 15% and unfavorably by 19%.

Both remain unknown to large swaths of the electorate and are the only two mayoral candidates the CPI poll covered. There are 10 candidates challenging Johnston in next year’s race.

Conducted Aug. 11-15, the poll surveyed 400 likely Denver voters about issues ranging from the economy and public safety to transportation, downtown development and homelessness, Johnston’s signature issue.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

The findings are part of CPI’s 2026 Denver survey, its fourth survey of Denver voters since 2023.