A new poll shows President Donald Trump gaining ground in the Sunshine State.
This week, St. Leo University, which is located in Pasco County, released a poll of Florida voters which showed 46 percent of Florida residents approve of Trump while 51 percent disapprove of him. That’s up from a St. Leo poll taken in April which showed 40 percent of Florida voters approved of Trump and 55 percent disapproved of him.
Carrying Florida next year is essential to Trump’s hopes of winning a second term. He kicked off his reelection effort in Orlando earlier this year and has focused on the Sunshine State in recent weeks, including a rally in South Florida. Trump is scheduled to appear at an event for the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) later this week and changed his residence from New York to the Sunshine State in recent weeks.
Trump is in better shape in Florida than he is at the national level, St. Leo found. The university also took a poll of voters across the nation which shows 55 percent of those surveyed disapprove of Trump while 43 percent approve of the president. Back in April, a St. Leo poll taken of voters around the nation showed 55 percent of those surveyed disapproved of Trump while 42 percent approved of him.
“Although the president’s approval rating goes up and down slightly, opinions of his job performance are by now baked into the pumpkin pie,” said Frank Orlando, the director of the Saint Leo University Polling Institute and a professor of political science.
“Barring incontrovertible bombshells one way or the other, those who oppose will continue to find reasons to do so, and those who support him will do likewise,” Orlando added. “This is part of a decades-long shift of less dynamic approval as a result of polarization. Fewer and fewer people are unsure what to make of the president because their mind is made up before they hear new facts.”
St. Leo conducted a survey of 1,000 voters across the nation from Nov. 13 through Nov. 18 with a margin of error of +/- 3 percent. The survey of 500 Florida voters was taken during the same period and had a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.
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