Romney Registers Personal Best 50% Favorable Rating
Up from 39% in February, but one of lowest for a presumptive nominee
by Jeffrey M. Jones
PRINCETON, NJ -- Fifty percent of Americans now have a favorable opinion of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, up from 39% in February and his highest by 10 percentage points. His current 41% unfavorable rating, though, leaves him with a net score of +9, after being at -8 in February. In roughly half of the 28 measurements Gallup has taken of Romney since 2006, more Americans have viewed him negatively than positively.
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The spike in Romney's favorable rating in the May 10-13 USA Today/Gallup poll is predictable, given that he has become the presumptive Republican nominee. Presidential candidates typically get a spike in their favorable ratings in the wake of winning the nomination. Gallup's prior measurement of Romney, in February, came as Rick Santorum was surging in the polls after a series of primary and caucus wins that made him Romney's main challenger.
Republicans and independents are fueling the rise in Romney's favorable rating, with Democrats' views of him unchanged. Eighty-seven percent of Republicans now view him favorably, up from 65% in February. His favorable rating among independents is 11 points higher, and independents now view Romney more positively (48%) than negatively (43%).
As a result of the increase, Romney's favorable rating nearly matches President Obama's 52%. Obama has a 46% unfavorable rating. Obama's favorable rating has ranged between 50% and 55% since January 2011. It was 64% after he clinched the 2008 Democratic nomination, and reached a personal high of 78% just before he was inaugurated in January 2009.
Romney's Favorable Rating Low Compared With Those of Prior Nominees
Although Romney's favorable rating is improved, it ranks among the lowest for recent nominees in the first Gallup poll conducted after they wrapped up the presidential nomination. Gallup has tracked favorable ratings of presidential candidates using the current question format since 1992. Only Bill Clinton, at 38% in March 1992, had a lower favorable rating than Romney currently does, partly because Clinton was still unfamiliar to a substantial minority of Americans (23%) after wrapping up the 1992 Democratic nomination. Clinton's rating improved in the months that followed as he became better known, reaching 50% in May.
John Kerry (60%) and Bob Dole (57%), who -- like Romney and Clinton -- faced incumbent presidents in the election, had higher favorable ratings after they became the presumptive nominees for their respective parties.
John McCain had the highest favorable rating of any recent nominee -- 67% in March 2008.
