Poll: Trump More Popular Than Malloy
In Connecticut, President’s Approval Rating 34%, But Governor Rates Only 17%
President Donald Trump is twice as popular as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in Connecticut, a new poll says.
Trump has an approval rating of 34 percent in Connecticut, according to a poll by Sacred Heart University and Hearst Connecticut Media. The poll shows Malloy with an approval rating of 17 percent.
Polls have shown Malloy became the nation’s least popular governor after the departures of low-rated Republican governors in Kansas and New Jersey. Malloy is one of the lowest-rated governors in Connecticut history.
Among Republicans, only 1.9 percent approve of the way Malloy is handling his job, the Sacred Heart poll said. Nearly 93 percent of Republicans disapprove of Malloy’s performance, compared to 71 percent of unaffiliated voters and 54 percent of Democrats.
Last month, the Sacred Heart poll placed Malloy’s approval rating among all voters at 15.9 percent. In 2016, an internal Democratic poll during the legislative races had Malloy at 18 percent as lawmakers were determining whether they should align themselves with their party’s governor.
The Sacred Heart telephone survey of 501 likely voters was taken between Sept. 12-17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.
Aware of Malloy’s poll numbers, Repub- lican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski and his supporters have been running television commercials that seek to tie Malloy to Ned Lamont, the Democratic candidate. During a recent debate, Stefanowski talked constantly about Lamont and Malloy as he answered questions. The poll had Lamont leading Stefanowski by 6 points in the governor’s race.
The 21-question poll showed that 56.3 percent of unaffiliated voters in Connecticut said they had an unfavorable view of Trump. Trump’s highest support comes from Republicans, men, those without a college degree and those aged 45-64, according to the poll.
Groups supporting Trump the least include Democrats, women, people with college degrees and those aged18-34. Only 9 percent of Democratic voters said they approved of Trump’s handling of his job.
Great Blue Research Inc. of Cromwell conducted the survey on behalf of Sacred Heart, which is based in Fairfield.
Malloy’s poll ratings have plummeted through the years as Connecticut has faced constant budget deficits and the two largest tax increases in state history in 2011 and 2015.
In findings similar to Sacred Heart, a Quinnipiac University Poll of registered voters in August found Trump with an approval rating of 30 percent compared to 25 percent for Malloy.