Who are the big political losers of 2023 in America?

American politics has been rife with winners and losers in 2023. However, it's the stories of the year's political losers that make for the best end-of-year reviews. So who were the biggest losers in the US this year? Let’s take a look at them. 

Ron DeSantis might be the biggest political disappointment of the year as well as one of its biggest political losers. Slated to dethrone Donald Trump as the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, DeSantis proved to be a big letdown.

The Governor of Florida was once leading Trump by significant margins in some polls at the beginning of the year. Take for example one February Club for Growth poll reported on by The Hill that had DeSantis up by nine points on Trump. 

However, as of December 27th, FiveThirtyEight’s averaged polling results on the GOP Primary showed that Trump was sitting at a very comfortable 61.2% of the vote among the party while DeSantis was averaging a mere 11.7% of votes. 

If you want some real perspective of the situation DeSantis is facing then it is helpful to look at how Republican Primary rival Nikki Haley has very nearly caught up to DeSantis in the polls, netting 11% of GOP Primary voters for her campaign.  

Another Republican who suffered a big loss in 2023 was Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the former House Speaker who was ousted by the far-right wing of his party for what are still unknown reasons. Let’s take a quick look at McCarthy’s saga. 

Politico noted in a report on the ten most bizarre moments in Congress this year that the former House Speakers had to endure fifteen rounds of voting before he was able to get his speakership secured. But it came at a heavy price for McCarthy. 

“McCarthy ultimately struck a deal with conservatives to attain the gavel, only to watch it all come crashing down nine months later, again at the hands of [Matt] Gaetz and a few fellow hardliners,” Politico wrote, though the saga didn’t end there. 

The former House Speaker eventually announced that he was retiring from Congress in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that explained while he was leaving government, he wasn’t leaving the fight to help expand the Republican Party.  

It wasn’t all Republicans who lost this year. New York Mayor Eric Adams seemed as if he could do no wrong when he was elected to office. But the many scandals the mayor has been caught up in 2023 would challenge Adams’ perfect persona. 

Adams was indicted on allegations of bribery and favor trading in September according to The New Yorker. In November, the home of the mayor’s chief fundraiser was raided by the FBI and Adams had his electronic devices seized. 

The New York Times revealed that the FBI was searching Brianna Suggs’ home looking for evidence that would confirm their theory that members of Adams’ team had violated campaign finance law. The situation became a giant mess. 

However, Adams’ problems weren’t nearly as bad a s those of George Santos. To make a very long story short. Santos was a liar who got caught. Unfortunately for him, a lot of the lies he told revealed some of the illegal things he had done.

While lying got Santos into a lot of hot water, so much so that even Republican members of Congress were asking for his resignation. Vanity Fair reported Santos was removed from Congress following the release of a House Ethics Committee report.

According to BBC News, Santos is facing thirteen criminal charges related to lies and all the unscrupulous activities he had been involved in. These included charges of fraud as well as theft of public funds, money laundering, and making false statements.   

It’s hard to top the problems George Santos is facing but somehow Democratic Senator Bob Menendez was able to do it. Charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, Menendez allegedly traded information to Egypt for hundreds of thousands in cash and other gifts. 

“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the Manhattan federal court indictment explained according to a September NBC News report. 

You might not think that Joe Biden deserves to be on the list of biggest political losers in 2023 but some experts would disagree. Sure Biden has overseen a great economy and the country is doing quite well, but Americans don’t think that. 

"Despite presiding over a domestic economy that has produced record job numbers, booming corporate profits, and lower inflation, the besieged president is getting the back of the hand from Americans of all stripes,” Thomas Whalen told Newsweek. 

Americans have an issue with Biden’s age according to Whalen, who explained that the voting population thinks the current president is too out of touch for a second term, and Biden’s polling numbers reflect this fact. 

As of December 27th, FiveThirtyEight noted Biden has a 38.9% average approval rating while a whooping 55.5% of Americans disapprove of the president, worrying statistics as Biden seeks to run for reelection in the new year.