A new poll released Wednesday morning by a non-partisan national research firm showed that Governor Kay Ivey, President Donald Trump and Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) enjoy varying degrees of positive job approval ratings in the Yellowhammer State.
The poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, which has offices in Washington, D.C. and Jacksonville, FL, was conducted April 9-11 and surveyed 625 registered Alabama voters by telephone. The margin of error is four percent.
Ivey has an eye-popping 32-point net job approval rating, with 60 percent approving versus 28 percent who disapprove. Trump’s job performance is also popular, as 52 percent approve and 44 percent disapprove. Shelby has the same percentage who approve as Trump, but enjoys a significantly larger net rating because only 35 percent disapprove.
This is the first publicly released polling data after Ivey’s Rebuild Alabama infrastructure package was passed. Her new numbers from the Mason-Dixon largely are not a significant swing from her pre-Rebuild Alabama numbers in Morning Consult’s poll that covered the final quarter of 2018.
In that previous Morning Consult survey, 63 percent of Alabamians said they approved of Ivey’s job performance, while only 19 percent disapproved and 18 percent either do not know or had no opinion. The margin of error in that polling was one percent.
Additionally, the new Mason-Dixon polling generally mirrors Shelby’s Morning Consult data from the final quarter of 2018. That survey had 47 percent of Alabamians approving his job performance and 27 percent disapproving.
However, Trump’s numbers in the Mason-Dixon poll represent a sizable deviation from Morning Consult data from March 1, which said 61 percent of Alabamians approve of the president’s job performance and 35 percent disapprove. Alabama has consistently been one of the highest three states for Trump’s approval ratings, often coming in at the top.
Moving back exclusively to the new Mason-Dixon polling, demographic breakdowns show that Ivey has a positive net approval rating with both Republicans and Democrats.
Comparatively, even though she enjoys a much bigger net approval rating, Trump scores considerably better amongst Republicans than the governor does. This is explained by Democrats even approving of Ivey’s job performance 45-41, while they disapprove of Trump’s by 93-4.
Trump is approved 87-9 by Republicans while Ivey scores a 75-16 score in the same metric.
Shelby, while certainly popular with his own party, has relatively balanced support, too. Republicans approve of Alabama’s senior senator 65-22 while Democrats disapprove 57-29.
Ivey also is approved by both white (66-24) and black people (46-37) alike.
This was the same poll that showed Sen. Doug Jones’ (D-AL) re-election bid faces huge demographic barriers. The polling was just released in two parts between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mason-Dixon CEO & Managing Director Brad Coker told Yellowhammer News that this polling was done in conjunction with public policy research for several private clients.
“We did an omnibus issue poll for about a dozen public policy clients in the state. Then we added the election questions for our own use,” Coker explained.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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