According to a recent poll from the UNF Public Opinion Research Lab, Governor Ron DeSantis has an approval rating of 60 percent, 17 percent higher than his predecessor Senator Rick Scott, who’s exiting approval rate was 43 percent.

When it comes to approval rates, 32 percent of Florida voters strongly approve of DeSantis, 17 percent being Democrats and 53 percent Republicans. 13 percent of Democrats and 4 percent of Republicans strongly disapprove of DeSantis.

“Gov. DeSantis is enjoying the honeymoon period of recently being elected,” Michael Binder, director of the Public Opinion Research Lab, said. “The question that will play out over the next two months is whether or not he can translate his popularity into policy during the legislative session in Tallahassee.

“Having unified Republican government should make things easier for the governor, but as we have seen in the past, personal relationships can make or break the budgeting process.”

Approval numbers take a strong dip for Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.

17 percent of the polled public strongly approve of Senator Rubio, with 11 percent of Democrats strongly approving and 29 percent of Republicans strongly approving. 24 percent of Democrats strongly disapprove while 6 percent of Republicans strongly disapprove.

Senator Scott has a 19 percent strong approval rate, with 8 percent of Democrats and  36 percent of Republicans strongly approving. Those exact numbers are reflected in strong disapproval of Senator Scott, with 36 percent of Democrats and 8 percent of Republicans strongly disapproving.

The Commissioner of Agriculture, Nikki Fried, had a 10 percent approval rate while a high percentage of polled voters (58 percent) didn’t know how she was handling her position.

Respondents to the survey also gave their opinion on the largest issue facing Florida. The options were economy, jobs, unemployment, education, healthcare, immigration, environment, crime, terrorism, gun policy, race relations, or none.

The top three issues that Floridians are most concerned with are education (19 percent), environment (18 percent), and healthcare (17 percent).

Concerning the controversial issue of concealed guns on college campuses, 38 percent of voters support concealed guns on campus while 58 percent are against it.

For more information on the poll results, see the detailed release from the UNF Public Opinion Research Lab.

This article was updated 3/4/2019 11:31 a.m. 

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