A new poll shows a majority of Floridians approve of Gov. Rick Scott as he mulls over running for the U.S. Senate in 2018 and battles his fellow Republicans in Tallahassee over funding Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida.
St. Leo University released a poll of Floridians on Tuesday showing a majority--56 percent--approve of Scott while 39 percent disapprove of the governor. Only 5 percent are not sure what they think of the governor who is in the middle of his second term in Tallahassee.
Scott is seen as very favorable by 21 percent of those surveyed while 35 percent view him as somewhat favorable. The same percentage of Floridians--21 percent--see Scott as very unfavorable as those that view him very favorably while 18 percent of those surveyed see him somewhat unfavorably.
“With the Florida economy humming along, it is no surprise that Governor Scott is enjoying solid favorability ratings,” said Frank Orlando, the director of the Saint Leo University Polling Institute. “This gives Scott a solid bargaining position in the current battle with Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran over the future of Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida.”
After rising in the private sector as a healthcare executive, Scott became politically active in 2009 when he led Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR) against then President Barack Obama’s federal healthcare law. Scott made his electoral debut in 2010, defeating then state Attorney General Bill McCollum in the Republican primary before edging then state CFO Alex Sink in the general election. During his tenure as governor, Scott has focused on job creation which helped him narrowly defeat former Gov. Charlie Crist in 2014. He is currently considering taking on U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in 2018.
The poll of 507 Floridians was conducted with an online survey instrument from March 3-11 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.
