Morning Consult released its “Senator Approval Rankings” on Thursday and found the two senators from Florida are headed in different directions. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential bid has hurt his standing in the Sunshine State the new poll shows. Rubio is one of only six senators across the nation with disapproval higher than 40 percent. The poll shows 45 percent of Florida voters approve Rubio while 41 percent disapprove of him.
This is a drastic change from November when Rubio was still running for the Republican presidential nomination. At that time, a Morning Consult poll found 50 percent of voters approved of Rubio while only 33 percent disapproved of him.
With buzz on the rise that he could be on the shortlist to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson is in better shape. The poll shows 52 percent of Florida voters approve of Nelson while only 24 percent disapprove of him. Despite Nelson having been active in Florida politics for more than 40 years, 24 percent of those surveyed are not sure what they think of him. There are reports out that Nelson could be on Clinton’s radar screen if she opts to follow George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s path by selecting a running mate with lots of experience and no White House ambitions of their own.
The senator with the highest approval rating is Bernie Sanders of Vermont who is currently running for the Democratic presidential nomination as an underdog against Clinton. He’s followed by Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and John Hoeven of North Dakota, independent Angus King of Maine and Democrat Patrick Leahy, his colleague from Vermont.
Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has the highest disapproval rating of any senator. He and Kansas Republican Pat Roberts are the only two senators upside down in the poll. Rounding out the top five highest disapproval ratings are some familiar names: former Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah and Nevada Democrat Harry Reid who leads Democrats in the Senate.
Ted Cruz is in good shape in Texas even as he continues to try to catch Donald Trump in the Republican presidential race with 55 percent of Texas voters approving him and 30 percent disapproving him. Back in November, 52 percent of Texas voters approved of Cruz while 32 percent disapproved.
From January 8 to April 17, Morning Consult interviewed 62,288 voters for the survey.with a median size of 935 respondents per state. In Florida, Morning Consult interviewed 4,138 voters with a margin of error of +/- 2 percent.
