Both of Utah’s U.S senators — Mitt Romney and Mike Lee — are underwater in their voter approval ratings, as more Utahns disapprove of them than approve of them, a new UtahPolicy.com/Y2 Analytics poll shows.
Romney has a 46-51 percent approval rating (46 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” approve, while 51 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disapprove), with 11 percent don’t know.
While Lee has a 43-47 percent approval rating, while only 4 percent don’t know.
That is not good for either man and goes along with other Utah Political Trends polling recently that shows general displeasure by Utah voters about what the U.S. Congress is doing.
And here is a fascinating statistic that jumps out when one looks at the four U.S. House members from Utah and the two U.S. senators: Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, has the ONLY positive approval rating from his constituents.
And Utah is a very red state.
That means Utah voters, as a whole, like the only Democrat in the congressional delegation, and they don’t like the other five Republicans.
Even though Romney has been critical of GOP President Donald Trump recently, the above polling likely reflects how Republicans in our delegation have been standing by the embattled president — now under impeachment hearings in the U.S. House — while McAdams has been much less supportive of Trump.
Here is the UtahPolicy.com story showing how the approval ratings of the four U.S. House members shake out — with only their district voters being polled for each man.
You see that 54 percent of 4th District voters approve of the job McAdams is doing, 30 percent disapprove, while 16 percent don’t know.
That compares to 51 percent who disapprove of Romney, and 47 percent disapprove of Lee. (Their voters are statewide, while only 4th District voters cast ballots for McAdams.)
Here are some of the interesting demographic and partisan breakouts for both senators:
–Romney has always had a bit of a “female” factor in Utah: Women like him more than men.
And you see this in Y2’s numbers.
— 50 percent of women like the job Romney is doing, but only 43 percent of men do.
— Lee is not a hit with women, only 36 percent approve of the job he’s doing, not a good number for him, while 47 percent of the men approve of him.
Those who said they are “strong Republicans” really have a problem with Romney, but they love Lee.
— Romney’s approval rate among “strong Republicans” is actually underwater: Only 40 percent approve of him, while 59 percent disapprove of him.
That is rather amazing.
— But “strong Republicans” really like Lee, 72-19 percent.
Romney’s problem with the reddest of his party is no doubt because he has been critical of Trump, while Lee has mostly stood by the president.
Romney rebounds among those who said they are “not very strong Republicans.” He has a 71-23 percent approval rating among them.
Lee’s approval rating among that GOP group is 59-24 percent.
True political independents give Romney a 44-52 percent approval rating; Lee gets 36-53 percent approval from this group.
As would be expected, neither Republican gets goods marks from hardcore Democrats.
But what may be classified as weak Democrats really like Romney — a man from their opposing party.
— “Strong Democrats” dislike Lee, 5-81 percent, while Romney gets a 32-63 percent approval rating.
Still, one-third of “strong Democrats” liking Romney is pretty good in these partisan times.
— “Not very strong Democrats” dislike Lee, 3-84 percent
But they actually like Romney, 65-32 percent.
Really!? Sixty-five percent of not very strong Democrats like the job Romney is doing?
That reflects Romney’s recent criticism of Trump.
After Y2 left the field, a pro-Trump group started running TV ads critical of Romney, calling him a secret asset for the Democrats.
It is clear Romney — who lost the presidential race to Democrat Barack Obama in 2012 — doesn’t much care about right-wingers from his own party and Trump supporters.
It was right-wing GOP delegates who placed Romney second in the state Republican convention last year (he went on to slam-dunk his GOP primary opponent and coast to a November 2018 victory).
Y2 finds that only 23 percent of those who are “strongly conservative” like Romney.
While 74 percent of that same group approve of the job Lee is doing.
For the time being, Lee is loved by the partisan right-wingers, while Romney is doing just fine with about everyone else in Utah.
