2019 is coming to a close and, without question, Florida’s top politician was Governor Ron DeSantis. It appears everything went right for the first-year governor.
A recent Mason-Dixon poll shows that DeSantis’ showed that DeSantis holds a 65% job approval rating with significant Democrat support.
"There is quite a bit of cross-over in terms of his support," Pollster Brad Coker says. "In an age where the country is so partisanly divided, it's noteworthy that 40% of Democratic voters actually approve of DeSantis.”
According to the poll, 42% of Black voters approve of DeSantis, 56% of Hispanics and 71% of White polled believe he has done a good job thus far.
But why is DeSantis so popular?
Aside from his “green” governance and tough stance on illegal immigration, not to mention his natural disaster recover response, DeSantis has been largely successful because of the economic groundwork that was paved during Gov. Rick Scott’s time as governor.
For comparison, an approval poll of then-Gov Scott was conducted around this time of year in 2011. Scott’s approval ratings were hovering at a dismal 34% or worse, and Democrats hated him.
Many of you will remember Scott inherited a disastrous state economy from then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, while DeSantis took over Scott’s booming economy that brought it unprecedented job growth.
Scott ran twice on “jobs, jobs, jobs,” and he delivered; even though he faced constant push back and a lack of support during his two terms in office from President Barack Obama’s administration.
Because there is no need to fix something that isn’t broken, DeSantis’ pro-Jobs economic agenda is working, and with assistance provided to Florida by President Donald Trump, Florida could be on the pace of to set new economic growth records.
Publicly, the two men are friendly and aligned politically, but unconfirmed rumors of a rift between Sen. Rick Scott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been confirmed to The Floridian by several insiders who wished to remain nameless.
The rift, if you want to call it that, took place during the transition phase of DeSantis’ governorship when Governor-elect DeSantis’ reversed many of Scott’s outgoing appointments, a tradition that many past governors have made as they leave office.
According to the source, many of Scott’s appointments directly stood in the administrative agenda DeSantis wanted to put forth.
To many, move to remove the appointments was a slap in the face to outgoing Gov. Scott.
