Poll after poll has shown Gov. Larry Hogan is immensely popular here in Maryland. Despite the state’s huge Democratic majority, voters have continually put Hogan’s approval rating in the 60-percent-to-70-percent range.
The trend continues in a new poll by Gonzales Research & Media Services, which found that three of every four Marylanders think Hogan is doing a good job in Annapolis.
Would that popularity be enough to buoy Hogan in a primary battle with President Donald Trump, as many political pundits have suggested? If the results are any indication, he should steer clear.
Maryland Republicans–87 percent of whom say they approve of Hogan–would flock to Trump en masse, giving the president a 68 to 24 advantage in an election contest. Men and older voters offer even stronger support for Trump in a hypothetical match-up, with about three-quarters of each group saying they would choose to have Trump continue to represent the GOP.
It’s hard to imagine those results would get any better in a nationwide race.
Overall, 78 percent of the registered Republicans surveyed said they also think Trump is doing a good job in the White House. Only 18 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of unaffiliated voters said the same.
These low ratings for Trump come mostly from African-Americans, who said they strongly disapprove of the president. Only 13 percent of black voters thought highly of the Trump administration. White voters, meanwhile, were almost evenly split, with 50 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving.
Marylanders are also lukewarm about the prospect of impeaching the president in the wake of the Mueller investigation of the Trump’s campaign ties with Russia. Only 37 percent would like to see impeachment proceedings begin. Among Democrats, a slim majority–54 percent–would like to see Congress act. Not surprisingly, only 2 percent of Republicans feel the same.
Once again, the numbers are very different along racial lines. Eighty percent of African-Americans would like to see Congress opt for impeachment, while only 21 percent of white voters agree.
Opinion is a little less divided about whether the Mueller report was “fair and objective.” Sixty-four percent of respondents classified it as such, including 72 percent of Republicans–perhaps because Trump said it offers “complete and total exoneration.” (Narrator: It doesn’t.)
The poll was conducted between April 29 and May 4, when 826 registered voters who said they are likely to vote in the upcoming general election were surveyed over the phone.
