Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is discovering that putting your constituent’s children at imminent risk of death and illness is not a popular move among voters. As campaigns for the Florida gubernatorial election heat up, approval of the current governor and his actions, particularly on COVID-19, are quickly cooling off.
“DeSantis is now underwater with 49% of voters; only 44% approve of his job performance.” – 8/4/21 #FlaPol https://t.co/kC8SglWM0b
— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) August 21, 2021
While DeSantis had a fairly high approval rating just a few short months ago, laws banning mask mandates in schools and misinformation about a deadly pandemic has changed some voters’ minds about the governor. DeSantis’s challengers, former Governor Charlie Crist and current Secretary of Nikki Fried are quickly overtaking him in polls .
‘We see a complete flip from 8 weeks ago with, today, Charlie Crist leading DeSantis 56.7% to 43.3%. What seems to be the biggest part is the amount of grasp each has within their party. With Democrats we see Crist having 89.8% of his base whereas with the Republicans we see DeSantis only taking 74.7% of the GOP responders.’
Responses to questions specifically related to DeSantis’s handling of the pandemic showed the highest disapproval among those polled. Democratic voters are nearly in wholesale disagreement with DeSantis over his handling of the virus, but Republicans aren’t thinking in lockstep on the issue, either.
‘When rating the handling of the Pandemic, DeSantis has 53.8% having either an unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion on how he is handling the overall pandemic. However, when you break it out by party lines, we see Republicans are still strongly supportive of his actions with 66.2% having a combined favorable and very favorable opinion of his handling of the situation.’
"DeSantis’ poll numbers have dropped over the last month, and what seemed to be an almost invulnerable position a month ago has become very spongy in response to DeSantis’ handling of the delta wave." https://t.co/xfFS1WYO4A
— TOEACHHISPHONE (@TOEACHHISPHONE) August 22, 2021
The poll is an early one and its results can’t be considered any kind of clear projection for the 2022. However, DeSantis is likely to continue to lose support right alongside Florida’s pandemic levels as they continue to rise. As other governors take action to stop the spread, GOP governors may find themselves out of job if they continue with the COVID misinformation and failure to support their constituents’ health concerns.
Poll: Voters disagree with DeSantis on face masks https://t.co/KuPdiGfLn7 @1370WCOA @Fla_Pol
— Rick Outzen (@routzen) August 24, 2021
