HARTFORD, CT — Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy remains the third most unpopular governor in the country, according to a new Morning Consult poll released Tuesday.
Malloy maintained his 29 percent approval rating, which is the same as it was in April’s poll. That’s actually an improvement from last year’s poll, which gave him the same approval rating, but landed him in the number two spot. The governor, who announced he’s not running for re-election last year, holds the distinction of being the most unpopular Democratic governor in the country. He also chairs the Democratic Governors Association.
The only other Democratic governor to make the top 10 most unpopular list was Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo. Almost half of voters or 47 percent say they disapprove of Raimondo.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was the most unpopular governor this year followed by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. The two Republicans were in the top two spots in April’s poll, too.
Roughly 69 percent of voters in the Garden State disapprove of Christie, who recently made national headlines for closing state beaches during a budget impasse while enjoying one of those beaches with his family over the July 4th weekend. Two-thirds of voters in Kansas disapprove of Brownback, who was rebuked by his own party when they overrode his veto rolling back his signature 2012 tax cuts.
The survey shows a number of other governors whose net approval ratings have dropped, including:
• Gov. John Carney, D-Delaware, down 19 points
• Gov. Jim Justice, D-West Virginia, down 17 points
• Gov. Phil Scott, R-Vermont, down 13 points
• Gov. Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma, down 9 points
• Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Arizoma, down 14 points
• Govs. Kate Brown, D-Oregon, Matt Bevin, R-Kentucky, and Greg Abbott, R-Texas, each down 7 points.
The two most popular governors, according to the poll, are Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland. Both are Republicans operating in traditionally blue states. An estimated 71 percent of Massachusetts residents approve of Baker while 68 percent of Maryland residents approve of Hogan.
The poll was based on interviews with more than 195,000 registered voters across the U.S. from April 1 through July 10. The margin of error for the Connecticut portion of the survey is listed as 2 percent.