A year after he was elected, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is getting high marks across the board from Floridians according to a new poll.
The University of North Florida (UNF) released a poll of Florida voters on Thursday showing DeSantis in excellent shape. An overwhelming majority of those surveyed–72 percent–approve of DeSantis while only 17 percent disapprove of him.
“This is the highest gubernatorial approval in recent history. You’d have to go back to the early days of the Charlie Crist administration to see numbers this high,” said Dr. Michael Binder, the faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab at UNF. “Working on bipartisan issues and acting in a reasonable fashion during the recent hurricane season are contributing to his popularity in a state where the governor isn’t historically popular across parties.”
Most Republicans–91 percent–approve of DeSantis but he also does well with voters outside the major parties as 69 percent of them approve of him while only 13 percent disapprove of him. Even a majority of Democrats in the Sunshine State–56 percent of them–approve of the governor while 33 percent of them disapprove of DeSantis.
DeSantis gets good marks from both sexes as 77 percent of men and 67 percent of women approve of him. The governor is also in good shape with voters of all ages though he generally does better with voters older than 35.
The governor is in excellent shape with Hispanics as 82 percent of them approve of him while 76 percent of whites approve of DeSantis. Half of blacks–50 percent–approve of DeSantis while around a third of them–32 percent–disapprove of the governor.
While the poll did not look at state Attorney General Ashley Moody or Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis, state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the one Democrat holding statewide office in Florida, was included. Fried remains largely unknown a year after she was elected with almost half of those surveyed–49 percent–not sure about her. However, she does get good marks with Floridians who are aware of her with 41 percent approving of her and 10 percent of those surveyed disapproving of her.
Like the governor, Fried is in solid shape with Floridians of all political stripes. Fried is approved by 44 percent of Republicans while 12 percent disapprove of her while 45 percent are not sure. With Democrats, Fried is approved by 41 percent of them while 10 percent disapprove of her and 48 percent don’t know what they think of her. Most voters outside the major parties–54 percent–don’t know what they think about Fried while 38 percent of them approve of her and 8 percent disapprove of her.
The poll of 669 registered Florida voters was taken from Oct. 14 through Oct. 20 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.
