A new poll ranks Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs the second least popular governor in the United States.
According to the Morning Consult poll, Hobbs has the second lowest favorable rating in the country, at 40 percent, avoiding last place by beating out Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, who has a 39 percent favorable rating.
Hobbs’ low favorable ratings appear to reflect both lower name ID than many Governors and disappointment on the part of voters on both sides of the political aisle.
At the time of her election, Hobbs had promised an “open-door” policy and claimed she was willing to work with the Republican-controlled Legislature. That quickly changed as she embarked on a record setting veto spree that killed a number of bipartisan and otherwise non-controversial bills. Hobbs set the all time veto record earlier this legislative session and continued to build on it through the end.
And that's the fun part about numbers. One chart's "#Hobbs is the 2nd most unpopular Gov in America" is another's "She's doing historically quite well". The risky part about the second version is that it relies on voters who still don't know enough about her to offer an opinion. https://t.co/EttiNUqaK3
— Constantin Querard (@CQuerard) July 24, 2023
Tony Cani, a Democrat consultant attempted to spin Hobbs’ poll results as a positive. He tweeted:
CONTEXT: Governor Hobbs is at +7. Morning Consult didn’t show Doug Ducey with a net approval that high for the last 2 years of his time in office. He only had a positive rating once and was negative the rest of the time.
Constantin Querard, a Republican consultant, called Cani out:
And that’s the fun part about numbers. One chart’s “#Hobbs is the 2nd most unpopular Gov in America” is another’s “She’s doing historically quite well”. The risky part about the second version is that it relies on voters who still don’t know enough about her to offer an opinion.
And that's the fun part about numbers. One chart's "#Hobbs is the 2nd most unpopular Gov in America" is another's "She's doing historically quite well". The risky part about the second version is that it relies on voters who still don't know enough about her to offer an opinion. https://t.co/EttiNUqaK3
— Constantin Querard (@CQuerard) July 24, 2023
Hobb’s unfavorable number is at 40%, which gives her the net +7 rating that Cani was trumpeting. But her unfavorable numbers are also higher than the vast majority of Governors in the country, suggesting that there is a deep base of opposition already in place, in spite of her being in just her first year in office.