Despite a slew of recent rallies, literally moving here, and spending at least 78 days of his presidency at his Palm Beach private club, the majority of Florida residents don’t seem to view Donald Trump favorably, according to a new poll.
The poll, conducted by the Saint Leo University Polling Institute, was released Tuesday and found that 51.4% of Florida voters disapproved of Trump’s job performance in November, which is down from 55% in a similar April survey. The poll also stated that 45.6% of state voters approved of Trump’s performance, which is up from 40.4% in April.
According to the poll, 3% of Florida residents were unsure how to rate the president, compared to 2% nationally.
The poll, which surveyed 500 Florida residents between Nov. 13 to Nov. 18, is somewhat predictable for Trump, who barely won the battleground state in 2016 by less than 2 percentage points.
“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, director of the Saint Leo University Polling Institute, in a statement. “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. 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.”
Unsurprisingly, the poll also said that 84% of Florida Republicans currently support the president, with the additional support of 40.5% from Independents.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received a significant bump in support, with 68.2% of Florida voters saying they approved of his performance, which is up from 61.8% in April.
Saint Leo University Polling Institute says the poll yielded a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
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This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2019.
