Outlier? Poll shows voters still favor Charlie Crist over Ron DeSantis

Crist_Desantis side_by_side (10)
And they don't want the GOP incumbent to run for President either.

A poll showing Gov. Ron DeSantis trailing Charlie Crist suggests Floridians have turned on the Governor regarding mask wearing. And while voters remain unhappy with DeSantis’ performance as Florida’s Governor, they dread even more the prospect he could run for President.

If the election were held today with Crist as the Democratic nominee, the St. Petersburg Congressman would take almost 54% of votes to the Republican incumbent’s 46%, with independents breaking for Crist by a 5-percentage-point margin. That’s according to The Listener Group, a Pensacola-based outfit, which released its latest numbers Tuesday.

That’s a sizable lead outside the poll’s 3.1% margin of error, and more importantly, puts Crist well above the 50% mark. Pollsters collected responses from Sept. 3 through 5.

The same firm two weeks ago similarly found Crist up by a slightly wider 57%-43% margin.

Notably, the pollster in August also found DeSantis losing to Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the other major Democrat in the race. But now, it finds the Governor leading Fried 52% to 48%, largely thanks to independents, who broke for Crist but against Fried, going to DeSantis by 55% to 45%.

In July, before a surge in COVID-19 infections struck the state, The Listener Group found DeSantis beating Crist 55% to 45% and Fried 60% to 39%. So it appears the incumbent’s performance correlates closely to the number of infections in the state.

But pollsters also found voters out of step with the Governor on a number of policy issues.

The enactment of a “heartbeat” bill in Texas, which has DeSantis looking at “protections for life,” instantly turned abortion into a topline issue in the race.

The Listener Group polling signals 59% of voters oppose a heartbeat bill and less than 41% support it.

On DeSantis’ plans to issue $5,000 fines to businesses with “vaccine passports,” 60% of voters similarly oppose that approach compared to 40% who support it.

There’s even more vocal exasperation at DeSantis’ attempt to withhold salaries for school officials enacting mask mandates, with near 70% opposed to such an approach. Even 60% of Republicans oppose that plan.

Overall, fewer than 41% give a favorable grade to DeSantis for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and just over 42% give him a passing favorability rate at all. His favorability rating in the poll sank 11 points from late August.

But if there’s a job voters want DeSantis to hold less than Governor, it’s President. About 59% of Florida voters said they would vote for someone else if he were to run for Commander-in-Chief in 2024, compared to just 41% who would welcome such a run.

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].


24 comments

  • Alex

    September 7, 2021 at 9:42 am

    Yep, DesAnus has shown us his true self.

    Far right soulless fuck who only cares about power.

    • Lucy Sellers

      September 7, 2021 at 12:25 pm

      Fantastic work-from-home opportunity for everryone…Work for three to eight hrs a day and start getting paid in the range of 13,000 to 19,000 dollars a month…Weekly payments…And best thing is..It’s so Easy…

      follow details on this websit…….. https://Www.Money74.Com

      • Sister Millie Vanilli

        September 7, 2021 at 6:15 pm

        Gosh, Lucy, tell us more about it! Sounds too good to be true. Wink wink, nod nod.

  • Kathy

    September 7, 2021 at 10:41 am

    Yes, please. Having serious medical issues at 66 and exhausted with trying to get assistance or at the very least a reply from my “representatives” has left me looking for big changes in Florida government. My “representatives” are Scott (criminal), Steube (took oath to defend against enemies, foreign and domestic and stood down on January 6th, then turned his back on medals for Capitol Police who fought for him), Rubio (more interested in getting internet balloons to Cuba) and Desantis (trump clone), so I have no representation. Out of desperation, I called out of my bubble to Charlie Christ’s office. They not only took the time to listen, but supplied phone numbers and suggestions knowing I was not a constituent. Then, they followed up! I have been in Florida for over 42 years and am thoroughly disgusted and embarrassed by our Government. I am and always have been a fan of Charlie and know he will look out for our citizens. I do know he would never hold private vaccination parties in gated communities for his pals.

  • Kathy

    September 7, 2021 at 10:54 am

    And. Jacob, one more thing…
    If I was going to open a business, I sure as hell wouldn’t open in Florida. Desantis should be ashamed of himself (although shame is obviously a foreign feeling for him) for fining businesses that want to keep their customers and employees safe and healthy. Those are exactly the businesses I would support and frequent. I wonder how difficult it is to become a “private club”. Pay $5 a month, show your vaccination card and come on in. Norwegian Cruise Lines, kudos to you for standing up to the little tyrant in your attempt to protect passengers.

    • Shawn

      September 8, 2021 at 9:45 am

      “If you were going to open a business,”

      I have opened a business and Florida is am amazing place to own a business! The economy is booming here and that is because of Ron DeSantis. Clearly, you have no idea what it takes to run a business.

      Tyranny is being forced to take a vaccine. It is not tyranny to protect privacy.

      Lockdowns don’t work. The virus is surging nearly everywhere. Of course, the liberal media won’t tell you that.
      BTW, DeSantis is right again. He virus cases would start going back down in September and that is what is happening yet again. It’s Covid season in Florida and states in the Northeast and Midwest will probably experience a surge again in the winter.

      Thankfully, DeSantis has been pushing successful treatments that have saved thousands of lives. Democratically run states have ignored this treatments. DeSantis knows more about Covid than any Democrat running in Florida could know in a million lifetimes. “The Stanford doctor added that the Republican governor knows more about coronavirus literature than “most epidemiologists.” “I’ve just been very impressed,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

      • Paxus Calta

        September 9, 2021 at 9:14 am

        Florida has had vaccine mandates for decades. Where were you on Polio and Smallpox? Are these tyranny? Clearly not, these were effective tools to mitigate diseases we have no other treatment for. In fact the Florida Dept of Health requires school children to get all of the following vaccines:

        Diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP)
        Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV)
        Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)
        Varicella (chickenpox)
        Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
        Pneumococcal conjugate (PCV13)
        Hepatitis B (Hep B)

        Please indicate which ones are tyranny and which are good public health measures? And why have you waited so long to protest vaccines? Why aren’t you and your lovely QAnon friends camped out in front of the FL Dept of Health demanding we reverse all vaccine mandates? I guess Fox News did not tell you what to think in these cases.

        You own a business in Florida? I guess i am surprised you can stay in business when you believe such nonsense.

  • Lucy Sellers

    September 7, 2021 at 12:25 pm

    Fantastic work-from-home opportunity for everryone…Work for three to eight hrs a day and start getting paid in the range of 13,000 to 19,000 dollars a month…Weekly payments…And best thing is..It’s so Easy…

    follow details on this websit…… https://Www.Money74.Com

  • Michael Williams

    September 7, 2021 at 2:04 pm

    Show the poll and its internals

  • Michael Williams

    September 7, 2021 at 2:10 pm

    Okay….I found the poll. And its methodology is typical. It is called a “media poll”. It gives the Leftist Democrat media something to write about in hopes that no one digs deep. I’d love to see the R/D/I or non affiliate voter breakdown. If you call a eleven hundred people in St Pete or in Tampa, of course this is your result. Totally slanted as expected from you.

    DeSantis will win much bigger than he did against the gay prostitue loving crackhead.

      • JD

        September 7, 2021 at 4:18 pm

        I too would like to see the R\D\I and Districts for all the questions however, not just the one.

    • Alex

      September 7, 2021 at 4:45 pm

      Yeah it’s fucking linked in the story…..

      Duh.

      And it’s a landline only poll, so it polled mostly old farts who refuse to get cell phones – who are mostly Republicans.

      So are you an ignoramus or a liar?

      Or both?

      • JD

        September 7, 2021 at 5:16 pm

        As side thought about your landline comment – the whole “Do not call list” laws applied to cell phones as people moved to them in plethora probably decimated the polling pools.

        • Alex

          September 7, 2021 at 6:26 pm

          You’d have to know that (ie be informed)

          Which only reinforces my point.

    • Tom

      September 8, 2021 at 8:01 am

      It’s a total BS poll.
      Polled 16 more Dems vs Repubs,
      Def a Dem media poll
      Fishing for preprogrammed replies.

      Desserts wins big, the best!
      America’s Gov.

  • Ocean Joe

    September 7, 2021 at 5:20 pm

    If you only govern for 35%
    Don’t be surprised when the other 65% finally speak

    • Shawn

      September 8, 2021 at 9:48 am

      He governs based on what is the right thing to do, not based on polls like liberal democrats. If you think business owners are going to forget he saved their jobs during lockdown, think again. He’ll win in 2022.

  • A.M. Paladino

    September 8, 2021 at 9:06 pm

    “Florida’s summer surge of COVID-19 worse than any Democratic-led state” a direct quote from headline below.

    That says it all. Sorry duhsantis, dead people don’t vote.

    • Tom

      September 9, 2021 at 8:24 am

      Shawn Yes the great working people of Florida will not forget. This great man and family.

      Headlines made for idiot fools such as you AM, and other blue state want A bee’s. You and the other Manchurian s are disgraceful.

      America’s Governor wins!
      How’s your incompetent Biden/Harris doing for you. LMAO!

  • Paxus Calta

    September 9, 2021 at 9:18 am

    DeSantis only has a chance because he has blocked the Constitutional amendment that over 60% of the state voted for in 2018 giving ex cons their right to vote. He only won in the Governorship in the first place because of Republicans purging POCs from the voter rolls. DeSantis is like Kemp in Georgia, they can’t win playing by the rules, so they shift the rules in their favor.

  • Scott Bledsoe

    September 9, 2021 at 1:21 pm

    What DeSantis and these hard liners refuse to understand is that people care about other things more than profits and consumerism. And make no bones that is all these types of people care about. People like this do not care who they step on to get more of it for them and their friends. It’s cronyism. Too bad our educational system has failed to teach people to think critically about these kinds of people before making a judgment call.

    • Tom

      September 9, 2021 at 10:05 pm

      Right, so right Scott.
      That’s why the Gov expanded the public choice school scholarship option. To allow more poor and lower middle class kids to get access to better education. Who enslaves the poor uneducated into the corrupt school systems? Oh Democrats. Shockingly.
      All you are frauds. Just a bunch of Manchurians. Tom a tons!

  • Michael Thomas

    September 13, 2021 at 12:27 am

    The Republicans are wagering on the chance that prolonging covid19 will hurt President Biden, thereby helping Republicans down ballot. That’s why they are steadfastly and collectively against mask mandates, and are hush-hush wink-wink when it comes to vaccines. It’s a sad position to take; covid will evolve into a variant the vaccines can’t stop.

Comments are closed.


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