Florida voters deeply divided over DeSantis

Most don’t want him to run for president

Florida voters are deeply divided over Gov. Ron DeSantis, with Republicans cheering his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his overall performance and Democrats showing intense disdain.

A Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday also found six in 10 Florida voters don’t want DeSantis to run for president in 2024, a candidacy he hasn’t yet announced but virtually everyone in the political world expects.

First, he must win reelection to a second term as Florida governor in 2022.

The Quinnipiac Poll shows Florida voters are divided over whether he should be reelected, just the way they are divided about everything connected to DeSantis.

Pollsters found 48% said he deserves to be reelected; 45% said he does not. Among Republicans, 87% said DeSantis deserves reelection; among Democrats, 90% said he does not deserve reelection. Independents are divided, with 49% deserves and 43% doesn’t deserve.

COVID-19

A slight majority — 51% — of Florida voters disapprove of DeSantis’ handling of the COVID19 pandemic. The poll found 46% approve. That’s a net negative of 5 percentage points.

But that’s an improvement from July 2020, when 57% of voters disapproved and 38% approved, which was a net negative of 19 points.

It’s little changed from September 2020, when Quinnipiac found 49% disapproved and 45% approved of DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic, a net negative of 4 points.

In the latest poll, Republicans overwhelmingly (85%) approve of the way DeSantis is handling the response to the pandemic. Democrats even more overwhelmingly (93%) disapprove. Independents disapprove, 55% to 43%.

Overall approval

In the new poll, voters were almost evenly divided about the governor’s overall job performance, with 47% approving and 45% disapproving, a net plus of 2 percentage points.

That’s an improvement from July 2020, when he had 41% approving and 52% disapproving, a net negative of 11 points. It’s little changed from September 2020, when his approval/disapproval was tied at 45%.

But it’s a stunning fall from the early days of his time as governor, in 2019, when DeSantis enjoyed stratospheric approval levels, and many Democrats reported positive feelings about the then-new Republican chief executive.

In June 2019, he enjoyed a 55% to 22% approval rating, a net positive of 33 points. In March 2019 his approval was 55%-17% positive, a net plus of 38 points — the highest approval rating for a Florida governor in a decade.

Approval for the governor comes overwhelmingly from Republicans and disapproval from Democrats.

The poll released Wednesday showed 87% of Republicans approved of his performance and 92% of Democrats disapproved.

Presidential bid

DeSantis’ fellow Republicans are more supportive of the idea of his reelection than they are about his running for president.

Quinnipiac found 59% of the state’s voters said they would not like to see a DeSantis 2024 presidential candidacy. Just 35% support the idea.

More Republicans (67%) want to see him run than don’t (24%).

There’s near unanimity among Florida Democrats, 96% of whom do not want him to run for president. The poll found 2% of Democrats would like to see DeSantis run for president, but that’s such a small percentage it could easily be a statistical error.

Independents were between the two camps, though mostly opposed, with 61% saying they would not like to see him run and 31% favoring a candidacy.

Fine print

The results come from a Quinnipiac University survey of 889 Florida registered voters conducted by live interviewers calling landlines and cell phones from Aug. 17-21. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The sample sizes for subgroups — such as Democrats and Republicans — are smaller, so the margin of error is higher.

Pollster ratings from FiveThirtyEight.com give Quinnipiac an A minus rating based on the historical accuracy and methodology of its polls.