Another poll finds Ron DeSantis treading water in Florida

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/7/23-Gov. Ron DeSantis during a news conference, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Yet another survey of Florida voters suggests Ron DeSantis has lost much of the political momentum that powered his historic reelection victory over Charlie Crist just last year.

The new poll from the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab (UNF PORL) shows the Florida Governor with 47% popularity against 48% disapproval.

While critics may quibble that the survey oversampled Democrats, with 287 responses against just 242 for Republicans despite a GOP registration advantage, the poll conducted between Nov. 6 and Nov. 26 is the latest to show a once-popular Governor in territory previously inhabited by Rick Scott when he was in Tallahassee.

DeSantis is still popular among Republicans, with 84% approval against 12% disapproval. He’s on shakier ground with independents, with 48% approval against 47% disapproval.

Among Democrats, meanwhile, he has 7% approval and 89% disapproval, unsurprising given his hyper-partisan tenure.

Pollster Michael Binder is confident in the numbers, given weighting before release: “The unweighted N reflects the raw number of respondents. The percentages reflect the weighted responses.  So, yes more Ds responded, but the percentages are weighted to reflect the R registration advantage.”

A gender gap is very apparent in this survey. While 58% of men approve of the Governor, 56% of women disapprove of DeSantis, a potential reflection of new laws such as the six-week abortion ban the Governor signed into law earlier this year.

A racial divide is also evident here.

Though 54% of White voters approve of DeSantis, just 13% of Black voters do.

Striations among age groups are a bit less uniform.

DeSantis struggles with voters under 35 years of age, with just 32% approval among the 18 to 24 year old respondents. However, he does best among voters between the ages of 35 and 54, with 52% approval among those 35 to 44 and 55% among those aged 45 to 54.

Other surveys corroborate these findings.

A recent Cygnal poll of 800 likely General Election voters, reported first by Florida Politics, reveals the Florida Governor is at 50% disapproval against 47% approval. And another survey released this month by Florida Atlantic University didn’t go so far as showing DeSantis underwater, but it did show him barely afloat, with 50% approval against 49% disapproval.