WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — One year into the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Ron DeSantis has strong support among Florida voters.
A new Mason-Dixon poll released Tuesday reveals that a majority of Florida voters approve of the job DeSantis is doing in Tallahassee.
DeSantis has a 53% approval rating statewide, marking an 8-point improvement since July.
His disapproval rating also dropped 7 points from 49% to 42%.
Only 5% of those polled were unsure of DeSantis' performance.
DeSantis also holds comfortable leads over Democrats Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist, who are the frontrunners to challenge DeSantis in the 2022 gubernatorial election.
Fried is the lone Democrat in DeSantis' Cabinet and an outspoken critic of the governor.
Crist, who was a Republican when he was elected governor in 2006, currently serves in the U.S. House of Representatives. He became an independent so that he could run for U.S. Senate in 2010, losing to Republican Marco Rubio.
Not surprisingly, DeSantis is least popular in South Florida.
The heavily Democratic Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties is the only region in which DeSantis' approval rate was less favorable than his disapproval rate.
DeSantis has the greatest popularity in north Florida.
When it comes to choosing the next governor, Florida voters indicate that DeSantis has a decided advantage on Fried, with 51% saying they would vote for DeSantis if the 2022 election were held today, compared to 42% for Fried.
DeSantis was even more popular if Crist were to be his 2022 opposition, with 52% favoring DeSantis to Crist's 41%.
The governor is overwhelmingly popular among Republicans with an 89% approval rating. DeSantis had a 59% approval rating among independents and just a 15% approval rating among Democrats.
A total of 625 registered Florida voters were interviewed by telephone from Feb. 24-28.
