A new poll released by the University of North Florida on Thursday reveals that GOP Governor Ron DeSantis is skyrocketing in popularity, with a majority of both Republican and Democratic registered Florida voters approving the job he is doing as governor.
Seventy-two percent of all voters either strongly approve or somewhat approve of DeSantis' governorship. Ninety-one percent of registered Republicans strongly approve or somewhat approve, and an astonishing 56 percent of registered Democratic voters answered the same. Just 17 percent of voters said they strongly disapproved or somewhat disapproved of his tenure thus far.
Demographically speaking, 82 percent of Hispanic Florida voters, 50 percent of black Florida voters, and 76 percent of white Florida voters strongly approve or somewhat approve of Gov. DeSantis.
The poll also found that 59 percent of Florida voters somewhat oppose or strongly oppose giving illegal aliens driver's licenses. Seventy-one percent of respondents also answered in favor of "requiring businesses in Florida to use a federal immigration database, E-Verify, to check whether their workers are eligible for employment."
Ron DeSantis has been one of the few populist politicians in the Donald Trump era to blend both conservative ideas and leftist legislative ideas together. In January, he signed a law banning sanctuary cities and requiring local law enforcement to comply with federal immigration enforcement.
"Sanctuary cities basically create law-free zones where people can come to our state illegally and our country illegally, commit criminal offenses and then just walk right out the door and continue to do it," Gov. DeSantis said at the time. "In Florida, that will not happen."
Two weeks ago, DeSantis announced the state's "Toxic Algae Task Force" to improve environmental standards. "Under our legislation the Department of Environmental Protection will have the authority to intervene on the front end by inspecting these systems and requiring appropriate proactive measures to better upkeep wastewater facilities so that we can avoid these discharges in the future," Gov. DeSantis said.
He has also increased the salaries of Florida's public school teachers and administrators while also allowing them to now carry guns for protection. Gov. DeSantis is up for re-election in 2022.