Morning Consult's Governor Approval Rankings Q2

[President Johnson]

CHARLIE!!

Charlie Baker is such an awesome guy. Most notable is that the majority of popular governors are pragmatic problem solvers and no ideologues. This proves my point that pragmatic governance of social liberalism (not identity politics) combined with a center-oriented economic and fiscal policy is the best way to chose. Charlie Baker is someone who would make an outstanding president.

I'm only surprised that Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom aren't higher since they were elected in landslides (both massive FFs). Ned Lamont should also be doing better, he seems to be a pragmatic chief executive and a very nice person. I don't know why this guy is already unpopular. Probably the mess Muhloy left him.

[President Johnson]

new england sure loves their republican governors

Yeah, they're all moderates. I think a moderate Republican would have won in Connecticut last year, but Stefanowski was too far to the right and too close to Trump. And even then Lamont won barely in a D+9 year and Democrats sweeping House races and the senate election.

[President Johnson]

Ralph Northam at +5 is such a damn hypocritical look for democrats, imo.

How that dude survived the kkk/blackface scandal is beyond me. And nobody even cares that he admitted it in the immediate aftermath.

Dems MUST primary him.

Virginia has a one-term limit on the governorship, so he can't run again.

And the fact that he didn't have to run again probably played a part in his decision to just ride it out.

I mean the idea of him resigning over a 30 year photo is kind of absurd especially with Trump getting away with everything.

Especially when Northam at least admitted his mistake, repented, & seemed to grow as a human being, something which Trump is incapable of doing.

Agree. Justin Fairfax should resign though, as he's accused of multiple sexual harassment in more recent years.

[President Johnson]

Why has Gavin Newsom such a low approval despite winning with 62% of the vote? He would most likely win 62% again if the election was rerun.

[President Johnson]

I think these polls are ultimately pretty meaningless for candidates that aren't surpassing a 50% approval rating (and even then they fall far short of guaranteeing reelection). But, if we are going to extrapolate from this info, some thoughts...

Kelly +27, Sisolak +22, Cooper +20, Walz +18, and Evers +15 are highly satisfactory numbers to me.

Kemp +23? Disgusting!

Pretty mediocre numbers for Reynolds, Noem, and Justice, although Noem probably doesn't have anything to worry about in 2022. I think Reynolds could easily find herself in another competitive race (especially if it's another Trump midterm) but would still be favored. Lujan Grisham does surprisingly poorly here too (considering her impressive 2018 margin), but I can't imagine her losing in any circumstance.

I don't think Raimondo was any more popular in 2018 and she still had no trouble dispatching a supposedly top-tier GOP recruit, so I doubt that her numbers here really foreshadow any sort of trouble. Brown's in the same boat.

I agree with this assessment. I doubt Lamont is going to lose given Malloy survived two red wave elections and I don’t see Polis loosing given how Colorado seems to get bluer every month

Lamont probably won’t run again, but if he does I doubt he wins

Unless he has a major scandal (doubtful), I don't see him losing. Malloy won two elections during a red wave and the Republicans are probably stupid enough to nominate another fellow from the hard-right. Could be Lamont retires, what would put Susan Bysiewicz in a strong position.