Gov. Ron DeSantis sees high approval rating
After five months and plenty of controversial decisions, Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to enjoy high approval from Florida voters.
A Quinnipiac University Poll released Thursday found 55% of Florida voters approve of DeSantis’ performance, with 22% disapproval. That represents a net positive of 33 percentage points.
It’s down somewhat from the stellar level DeSantis was at in a March 13 Quinnipiac poll, when his performance was rated positively by 59% and negatively by 17% of the state’s voters, a net positive of 42 points.
The governor, who is still new to the job he won after three terms in Congress, is far more popular than the state’s other major Republican officials, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.
For Rubio, 45% approve and 41% disapprove of his performance, a net positive of 4 points.
In March, Rubio had 50% approval and 34% disapproval, a net positive of 16 percentage points.
Scott, who was DeSantis’ immediate predecessor as governor, is slightly underwater in Thursday’s poll, with 41% approval and 44% disapproving, a net negative of 3 points.
In March, Scott had 42% approving and 38% disapproving,
a net positive of 4 points.
DeSantis, Rubio and Scott — all of whom are seen as possible 2024 presidential candidates — have all closely associated themselves with President Donald Trump, even though Trump beat Rubio for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Trump was instrumental in helping DeSantis build support in both the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary and in the November election.
Trump’s approval among Florida voters is 44%, with 51% disapproving, a negative 7 percentage points. Quinnipiac polled about all four officials at the same time, but released presidential poll results on Tuesday.
During his first five months of office, DeSantis has taken some highly controversial actions, including pushing a new law that bans so-called sanctuary cities and counties in Florida and agreeing with his fellow Republicans on a plan to limit the impact of Amendment 4, passed by voters last year, to restore voting rights to most felons who’ve served their sentences.
He’s also continued his embrace of Trump, appointed three conservative
justices to the Florida Supreme Court, and suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, which some people love and some people hate.
Fine print
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,279 Florida voters from June 12 through Monday with live callers to landlines and cellphones. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The sample size for smaller groups, such as Democrats, Republicans and independents, is smaller and the margin of error is higher.
Pollster ratings from FiveThirtyEight.com gave Quinnipiac an A minus last year for its data gathering and accuracy. It missed the mark in the Florida governor’s race, with four general election polls showing DeSantis losing by an average of 6.3 percentage points. Quinnipiac’s polling was within the margin of error for the polls.