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MS GOP voters show strong support for top elected leaders, COVID response and teacher pay hike in latest Y’all Politics Poll
Republican voters seem pleased with their top elected leaders, this according to the latest Impact Management Group (IMG) poll commissioned by Y’all Politics.
IMG conducted a statewide public opinion survey using 600 2020 Republican Party Primary voters in the State of Mississippi between January 13-17, 2021.
FAVORABILITY OF TOP ELECTED LEADERS
Governor Tate Reeves gets high marks from fellow Republicans after one of the most challenging first years in the office any previous Governor has faced. Reeves has a favorability of 64.5%, the highest among elected officials polled by IMG. Respondents over 65 years old give the Governor almost 74% favorability while he falls shorter in the 18-34 crowd with over 44%.
IMG also polled the favorability of Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn among Republican voters.
Hosemann’s favorability comes in at 59%, with 28.5% Strongly Favorable and 30.67% Somewhat Favorable.
While not a statewide elected official, Speaker Gunn’s favorability sits at 30%. Only 8.83% hold a Strongly Favorable view of Gunn with 21.5% Somewhat Favorable.
Compared to Reeves (7%), both Hosemann and Gunn had a sizable percentage of respondents who either had no opinion of them or never heard of them. That percent for Hosemann was near 23% and for Gunn it was over 55%.
The favorability rating for the Mississippi Legislature is just south of 44%.
COVID JOB APPROVAL
Probably the most interesting result from the poll was how Republicans felt about Governor Reeves’ COVID response and management of the state during the pandemic. While his overall job approval rating among GOP voters is 69.5%, his approval rating for the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic sits just under 72%.
That difference would indicate that slightly more Republicans believe Reeves is doing a better job on COVID-related issues even if they do not approve of him personally. Given the current circumstances with many governors around the country feeling the pinch from constituents, even within their own party, this result is noteworthy.
INCOME TAX PHASE OUT
Republicans are very supportive of eliminating the state income tax, with nearly 63% in favor of the phase out proposed by Governor Reeves and supported by Speaker Gunn.
EDUCATION
The IMG poll shows there is broad support amongst Republicans for raising K-12 teacher pay by 10% – almost 71% approve.
However, larger increases that have the potential to put more pressure on the state budget are met with increasing opposition among Republicans. Only 34% would support a 20% teacher pay raise while 54% oppose that amount.
POLL DEMOGRAPHICS
The IMG poll sample included 72.34% who self-identified as Republicans with another 18% saying they were Independent. A half of a percent identified as Democrat.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of those polled were not college graduates but over 62% had a household income over $45,000.
The gender split was nearly 50-50 with 46% of respondents aged 65 years old and up, 36% 50-64, and 15% 35-49. 3% of those polled were ages 18-34.
The margin of error is +/- 4%.
This is the third poll from Impact Management Group commissioned by Y’all Politics. The 2020 poll conducted 6 months before the 2020 U.S. Senate election was remarkably accurate. It also measured voters’ overall reaction to Reeves shortly after the COVID crisis began. At that point, voters in both parties were more galvanized around leadership prior to the 2020 election. The IMG poll in June 2019 showed Reeves defeating both primary and general election opponents.
MageeNews.com is an online news site serving Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi.
