Raleigh, N.C. – Republican voters have really soured on Charlie Crist, and it appears he will have an exceptionally difficult time getting elected to the US Senate this year, according to the latest poll by Public Policy Polling.
Crist’s approval rating with likely Republican primary voters is only 29%, with 56% of them disapproving of him. He’s still decently popular with party moderates at a 46/41approval spread, but with the conservatives who make up most of its voters he’s at a negative 20/64.
Crist now trails Marco Rubio 60-28. Rubio is viewed favorably by 49% of primary voters and negatively by 23%. He trails Crist 49-36 with moderates but has a staggering 71-17 lead with conservatives.
It appears to be too late for Crist to change his mind about the Senate and just run for reelection either. 49% of voters say they would choose Bill McCollum in the primary if Crist decided to make another Gubernatorial race compared to only 35% who say they’d support the incumbent.
56% of GOP voters say they would like to see Crist out of public office a year from now, compared to 19% who would like to see him still as Governor and 14% who want him to be elected to the Senate.
“It’s been an amazing fall for Charlie Crist,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “At this point it doesn’t look like he could win a Republican primary for Dog Catcher.”
PPP surveyed 492 likely Republican primary voters from March 5th to 8th. The survey’s margin of error is +/-4.4%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.
© All Rights Reserved.