Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has the highest approval rating of any governor in over a decade, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents reported they approved of the work that DeSantis was doing during his first year in office, compared to just 17 percent who disapproved. Despite a brutal campaign, an astounding 42 percent of Democrats approve of the job the pro-Trump governor is doing while in office. (RELATED: DeSantis Suspends Sheriff After Poor Response To Parkland Shooting)
“Ron DeSantis won the governorship by the slimmest of margins, yet in his first two-plus months in office he has gotten off to a strong start,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, in a statement. “Part of Gov. DeSantis’ success is his taking on issues such as the environment on which Republicans often don’t focus.”
DeSantis defeated Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by roughly 32,000 votes in the 2018 gubernatorial race, a result so narrow that it automatically started a statewide recount.
Additionally, 62 percent of respondents asserted they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the direction the state of Florida is going, according to Quinnipiac—the highest such rating in the state since 2004.
Gillum was a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump during the 2016 and the 2018 elections, and even created an ad that detailed his level of love for the commander-in-chief.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,058 Florida registered voters from March 6 through March 11, and the approval rating carried a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points in either direction.