Charlie Baker’s long reign as America’s most popular governor is over
He does, however, remain extremely popular, at least according to a new poll.
Gov. Charlie Baker is no longer the most well-liked governor in the United States.
He’s still pretty well liked.
Baker fell to third in a massive Morning Consult poll released Thursday, ranking the country’s 50 governors by their home-state approval ratings. It’s the first time since September 2016 that Baker didn’t rank first in the quarterly survey, snapping an 11-poll streak as the country’s most popular governor.
Still, it’s not horrible news for the Massachusetts governor.
Baker was overtaken by two fellow Republicans, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. All three governors received 69 percent approval, but Gordon had the lowest level of disapproval in his deep-red state at 11 percent. Hogan and Baker had disapproval levels of 16 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
Those results represent a modest dip in Baker’s approval ratings; the last three Morning Consult polls showed him with 73 percent approval and between 14 percent and 16 percent disapproval.
In the new poll, two other New England Republicans — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu — rounded out the top five.
In fact, the poll found that the country’s 10 most popular governors are all Republicans, which has been an ongoing trend; last year was the first time since 2016 that a Democrat, Hawaii Gov. David Ige, broke into the top 10. (However, the new poll Thursday found that Ige is now the country’s least popular governor, apparently due to a controversial proposal to build a telescope on Hawaii’s tallest mountain.)
According to Morning Consult, the poll is based on 493,910 surveys with voters across the country from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31.
Despite a spate of negative headlines during the second half of last year, experts have credited a strong local economy and Baker’s moderate profile for his persistent popularity in the predominantly liberal state.
Ironically, the GOP governor is more actually popular among Massachusetts Democrats than local Republicans — or even independents — according to the latest poll. Morning Consult found that Baker’s net approval was +54 percent among Democrats and +48 percent among independents. He was least popular, relatively, among Republicans, with a net approval of +41 percent.
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