The latest survey by the Washington tech firm Morning Consult shows Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo with a 44 percent approval rating — up from 39 percent in April — although a greater percentage of respondents (46 percent) still disapprove of Raimondo’s job performance.
Ten percent of respondents did not have an opinion of Raimondo’s job performance. The finding has a three percentage point margin of error.
Since Morning Consult initiated in 2016 its periodic surveys of the nation’s governors, Raimondo’s approval has mostly been exceeded by her disapproval rating:
May 2016: Approve 41 percent; disapprove 53 percent.
September 2016: Approve 38 percent; disapprove 55 percent.
April 2017: Approve 48 percent; disapprove 45 percent.
July 2017: Approve 43 percent; disapprove 47 percent.
February 2018: Approve 40 percent; disapprove 47 percent.
April 2018: Approve 39 percent; disapprove 50 percent.
Raimondo faces a Democratic primary election on September 12 with former secretary of state Matt Brown and former state representative Spencer Dickinson.
In ranking the nation’s governor, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, once again came out with the best approval rating, at 69 percent.
Morning Consult also surveyed approval ratings for US senators. Rhode Island’s Jack Reed place fifth overall with a 57 percent approval rating, while Sheldon Whitehouse has a 51 percent approval rating. Whitehouse faces a primary challenge from anti-war candidate Patricia Fontes.
Morning Consult said its findings are based on more than 326,000 surveys with registered U.S. voters between April 1 and June 30.
