By Ken Warren, Ph.D., SLU/YouGov Poll Associate Director
Our February 2023 SLU/You Poll continues to show fairly strong approval ratings for Missouri’s political leaders, especially when compared to the relatively low approval ratings given by Missouri’s likely voters to President Joe Biden. Only 36% of Missouri’s likely voters said they approve of President Biden’s job performance with just 15% “strongly approving” and 21% “approving”. This 36% approval rating is identical to the overall 36% approval score he received in our August 2022 SLU/YouGov Poll where 12% said they “strongly approved” of his job performance with 24% “approving”. This relatively low approval score is driven largely by the extremely low percentage of likely Missouri Republican voters approving of Biden’s job performance. While 87% of Missouri’s Democrats approved of Biden’s job performance with 43% “strongly approving” and 44% “approving” (44%), only 2% of Missouri’s Republicans did with 1% “strongly approving” and 1% “approving”.
Biden has never impressed Missouri’s more conservative voters. In the 2020 Presidential election, Trump defeated Biden in Missouri by a lopsided margin, 57% to 41%. Nationally, Biden fares much better. Not only did he win the 2020 presidential election by better than 51% to 47%, recent national polling shows Biden polling stronger than he has since the beginning of his presidency with a 2/21 YouGov poll showing 48% approval with 50% disapproving (-2) and a 2/16 NPR/PBS poll showing 49% approving and 45% disapproving (+4).
Missouri’s likely voters rate their elected leaders much more positively. Governor Mike Parson received a 50% job performance score with 11% “strongly approving” and 39% “approving”. In our August 2022 poll he received an identical 50% overall approval rating with the same percentages “strongly approving” and “approving”. Of course, ratings are very different for Republicans and Democrats with 82% of likely Republican voters rating Parson positively with only 14% of likely Democratic voters doing so. As expected, predominantly Republican rural regions of the state rated Parson much more positively, especially in SE Missouri where he received 68% approval, than in the metro regions of the state where he received only 38% positive ratings in metro St. Louis and 44% in metro Kansas City. Parson’s approval percentages were noticeably lower among blacks (20%), all non-whites (31%), post-graduate educated (44%), and younger voters; 18-29 (44%) and 30-44 (40%).
Senator Josh Hawley received a slightly less positive job approval rating than Parson with a 47% total approval score with 22% “strongly approving” and 25% “approving”. His total approval percentage was 1% higher than his 46% approval score in our August 2022 poll. Hawley’s ratings were better than Parson’s among Republicans with a 91% total approval percentage, but only 11% of likely Democratic voters approved of Hawley’s performance with 3% “strongly approving” and 8% “approving”. Like Parson, Hawley’s approval ratings in Metro St. Louis (38%) and Metro Kansas City (43%) were lower than what he received in the rural regions of the state. As Parson, Hawley’s highest ratings by region were found in SE Missouri (64% approval). Hawley received relatively low approval percentages among blacks (18%), all non-whites (28%), and younger voters; 18-28 (40%) and 30-44 (42%).
Newly elected Senator Eric Schmitt (former Missouri Attorney General) received the lowest job approval ratings of the Missouri elected leaders we surveyed with a total approval score of 44%. Since he just stepped into the U.S. Senate seat, this approval score likely reflects an approval score more for his service as AG than U.S. Senator. Schmitt’s approval score was 6% lower than Parson’s and 3% lower than Hawley’s. Schmitt received a lower percentage of Republicans approving of his job performance (74%) than Parson or Hawley, but this may be due to a higher percentage of Republicans saying they were “not sure” (21%) compared to 6% “not sure” for Parson and 8% “not sure” for Hawley. This suggests that fewer likely Missouri voters know who Schmitt is. His approval ratings by region and race were similar to the scores received by Parson and Hawley, although slightly lower.
