Forty-four percent. You can't help but notice the coincidence.
President Barack Obama and Gov. Nathan Deal earned equally low approval ratings in this weekend’s Journal-Constitution poll. Not from the same Georgians, of course.
Click here for many, many more details from the survey. But the paired approval ratings may be among the more important, if only because they point to the November vulnerabilities of each party.
We have seen – are seeing now, in the current primary – Republicans demonize President Barack Obama. But a 44 percent approval rating also makes Deal ripe for a broad Democratic paintbrush after May 20.
One key difference: Voter disapproval of Obama stands at a racially charged 51 percent. Deal has turned off only 43 percent of the electorate.
Obama’s disapproval rating hits 90 percent among Republicans, 55 percent of independents. Seventy-five percent of white voters disapprove of his White House performance.
Contrariwise, those who give the president the thumbs up show the path forward for both Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter. Eight-six percent of African-Americans give him good marks. A plurality of younger voters, between the ages of 18 and 39, gave Obama their approval. Obama’s approval rating hits 68 percent in metro Atlanta.
Deal performs weaker among women and independents, earning an approval rating of 39 percent from each group. The Republican incumbent gets a nod from 50 percent of voters above the age of 65, earns the approval of 53 percent of those who want Obamacare to disappear, hits a 56 percent thumbs-up rating with white evangelical Protestants, and 55 percent with north Georgia voters.
But Deal tanks to a 33 percent approval rating in metro Atlanta.
One more number worth noting: 10 percent.
That’s roughly the amount of Republican support that Democrats Carter and Nunn are earning across the state. Whether that number is larger or smaller in October will tell us much about the chances of a Democratic comeback in Georgia.
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