The Republican lawmaker faces a 55 percent disapproval rating, while just 37 percent of Kentucky voters approve of him, according to a Public Policy Polling poll released Tuesday.

PPP says that McConnell now has the worst favorable/unfavorable numbers of any senator, snatching the dubious title from Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

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Among Republicans, McConnell — now in his fifth term — has a 59 percent approval rating, with 28 percent disapproving of the Senate minority leader. Among independents, he’s got a 33 percent approval rating, 58 percent disapproval. And among Democrats, 23 percent approve and 73 percent disapprove.

The survey of 1,266 Kentucky voters was conducted between Dec. 7 and 9 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent.

McConnell’s campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement to POLITICO that PPP had an “agenda to make Mitch McConnell look bad.”

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“It speaks volumes that even a liberal Democrat pollster with an agenda to make Mitch McConnell look bad still can’t find an opponent who can lead him in Kentucky,” Benton said in the statement. “This Democrat poll has a long-held reputation for skewed approval numbers and that’s obviously the case here since there is no poll, public or private, that has shown Senator McConnell’s approval ratings anywhere near where PPP suggests.”

PPP director Tom Jensen refuted those claims to POLITICO.

“When Republicans are arguing with pollsters — they’re losing,” Jensen said. “This is the same kind of stuff we heard from [GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s] campaign and in Republican congressional races.”

He noted that McConnell took the title from Nelson, a Democrat.