President Donald Trump listens to a reporter’s question during a meeting of the President’s National Council of the American Worker in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Copyright © 2018 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE – New Mexico voters are more skeptical of Donald Trump’s performance as president than they were of Barack Obama at a similar point in his first term, according to a Journal Poll.
But neither enjoyed strong approval ratings a year and a half into their terms.
Overall, the state’s voters remain deeply polarized over Trump’s presidency, with divisions falling along partisan, geographic and ethnic lines.
Just 38 percent of proven, likely voters in New Mexico approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, the poll said, and 54 percent say they disapprove. Trump’s approval ratings are similar nationwide, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc., which conducted the Journal Poll.
Obama, a Democrat, had a 45 percent approval rating in 2010 among New Mexico voters. Fifty percent of voters disapproved of his work, according to the Journal Poll that year.
It was a sign of things to come, as Republicans ended up gaining 63 seats in the U.S. House in 2010 and regaining a majority in the chamber.
“We do have a situation where historically the party not in the White House during the midterm election cycle gains politically and electorally,” Sanderoff said in an interview. “That could happen in New Mexico, as well.”Trump’s approval rating, for example, appears to reflect the political mood of the state. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham had a seven-point lead over Republican Steve Pearce in the Journal Poll, and Democrat Martin Heinrich held a comfortable lead in his race for re-election to the U.S. Senate in a three-person field […]
Read the full story: Journal Poll: Trump job approval at 38% in New Mexico