12 May 2021
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) marked an April approval rating of 55-40 percent in his state on Wednesday, a two percent increase from February.
Seventy percent of voters surveyed gave “DeSantis good marks on his handling of vaccine distribution, while just 26% say he performed poorly there,” according to the Florida Chamber of Commerce poll.
The governor also enjoys a “net 20-percentage-point approval rating with the critical independent voters. About 57% of those say he’s doing a good job, compared to 37% who disapprove of his performance.”
The increase is up from a February poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, when DeSantis had a 53 percent approval rating with a 42 percent disapproval rating.
The Club for Growth, the conservative anti-tax group, is endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
The Club for Growth PAC said Thursday in a statement obtained exclusively by The Hill that it is reengaging in gubernatorial races for the first time in 15 years and it is supporting DeSantis in part over his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Ron DeSantis has done an outstanding job as Governor of the Free State of Florida. Amidst the COVID pandemic, Governor DeSantis has proven that he is a constitutional conservative who is unafraid to stand up to liberals across America to implement data driven policies to protect jobs and economic growth in Florida,” said Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh.
Former governor Charlie Crist is only the first of high profile candidates to announce bids to replace him, part of an effort to break Republican dominance in statewide races.
Just three other men have won election as governor of their home states as members of both the Democratic and Republican parties. Crist, who won the governorship as a Republican in 2006, is trying to be the fourth.
He would follow in the footsteps of Mills Godwin, the first person to lead a state under both parties’ banners.
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Godwin won election in Virginia in 1965 as a Democrat, backed by influential Sen. Harry Byrd, a conservative Democrat who ran the commonwealth’s dominant political machine in the middle decades of the 20th century.
But Godwin was the last in his line as Byrd’s power faded. He was replaced four years later, forced out of office by Virginia’s one-term limit on governors, by Republican Linwood Holton, the first non-Democrat to run the state since William Cameron won election in 1881 as a Readjuster.