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Q&A – Where Floridians Stand On The Issues
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email:brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Hey Brian love, love, love the info you’re always able to find! I was looking around the website of the polling firm you cited in your story about young voters rejecting Biden and saw a lot of topics that were interesting....like BLM being rejected by most voters, most voters unhappy with the handling of the pandemic, etc. I’d love it if you talked about some of those other issues as well.
Bottom Line: Yeah, so to your point the online accredited polling firm CIVIQS, which is the only online accredited firm with consistent state by state data, polls on a host of topics ongoing. No doubt if you root around a little bit you’ll find just how much our country’s perception, and to a lesser extent Floridians – views have changed in a year. Aside from President Biden’s approval ratings being the lowest with the youngest voters, which in my mind is the biggest development in political polling I’ve ever seen, there are many excellent temperature checks across a myriad of issues available both nationally and in Florida specifically. I’ll start with the first two you mentioned. Feelings regarding Black Lives Matter.
- Approval rating: 43%
The Marxist organization BLM now retains a net negative approval rating as people have become more aware of what they’re really about. And regarding the federal government response to the pandemic...
- 52% not satisfied, with 33% saying they’re not satisfied at all
In Florida that number rises another 2-points with 54% not satisfied with the Biden administration's handling of the pandemic. Contrast that with the response of the state government. In Florida...
- 51% are satisfied
It’s notable that a solid majority of Floridians disapprove of the Biden’s administration's handling of the pandemic, while a majority of Floridians approve of the DeSantis administration's handling of the pandemic. Juxtapose those facts with the reporting we’ve been subjected to by national, state and commonly local news media as well. It tells a story doesn’t it? Regarding some of the additional information available which tells a story or two. One of the more interesting ones is the negative dynamic of President Biden announcing a vaccine mandate. At the time that President Biden announced a vaccine mandate 21% of people said they wouldn’t receive a COVID-19 vaccine with 5% who were still unsure. Most recently 23% of people say they won’t accept a COVID-19 vaccine with 3% unsure. There’s direct evidence that President Biden’s decision to issue a mandate had a negative effect on the likelihood of Americans accepting a COVID-19 vaccine. In many ways that’s to be expected. I’m not surprised to see it’s the case. At the same time, it illustrates how out-of-touch with the country the Biden administration is, to not realize that his issuance of a mandate would potentially cause a net negative reaction. Within the data it appears that the people who have given into mandates were those who were willing to accept a vaccine but that hadn’t done it previously.
Probably the one that best sums it up is this one though. On the question of the direction of the country 61% of people say we’re heading in the wrong direction, in Florida you can add a point to that. And it’s unanimous. By age range on the direction of the country:
- 18-34: 60% wrong direction
- 35-49: 63% wrong direction
- 50-64: 63% wrong direction
- 65+: 63% wrong direction
These are all higher than under the Trump administration, in fact a majority of Floridians approved of the direction of the country as recently as last year. It’s clear that regardless of the issue and regardless of one’s age we don’t approve of the leadership in Washington, while in Florida, we do approve of our leadership generally. This obviously bodes well for Governor DeSantis entering next year’s election cycle, while it’s a warning for Democrats statewide. Especially given the voting records of Florida’s Congressional Democrats which have been 100% in favor of the Biden agenda to date.
Next Tuesday’s clearly one of the earliest national temperature checks in the only polls which truly matter, at the voting booth. The key numbers to watch in New Jersey and Virginia in the gubernatorial races are 16% in New Jersey and 10% in Virginia. Those are the margins with which Biden won those states. The elections will be measuring sticks of sorts to see how meaningful of a shift there’s been within two blue states in one year and after just 9+ months of the Biden administration with Democrats in complete control of Congress.