AJC poll: Barack Obama's popularity remarkably steady in Georgia

Amid a ferocious campaign that Donald Trump has tried to frame as a referendum on his presidency, Barack Obama's support has stayed remarkably stable among Georgians over the last year.

Exactly 50 percent of Georgia voters hold a favorable impression of Obama during the final weeks of his presidency, according to a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll.

That's exactly the same level of support Obama secured in our August survey, a percentage point better than he fared back in the AJC's January poll and miles ahead of the marks Georgians gave him for most of his second term in office.

Unsurprisingly, Obama’s support hinges on party affiliation. More than 90 percent of Democrats said they held favorable impressions of Obama, while only 12 percent of Republicans reported the same feelings.

The president did do reasonably well with Independents, a group that tends to lean conservative in Georgia. Exactly half said they held a favorable view Obama, while 44 percent said they didn’t.

Obama's favorability ratings in Georgia largely gel with his numbers nationally, which have been on the rise over the last six months or so. That overall is fairly common phenomenon for lame duck presidents.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has embraced Obama's legacy and positioned herself as his heir who will carry the country in more or less the same direction. Our presidential poll found that Clinton is polling at 42 percent in Georgia, which is two percentage points behind Donald Trump but within the margin of error.