The number of Iowans who approve of the job Gov. Kim Reynolds is doing has dropped to an all-time low, according to the latest Iowa Poll. In the poll published Tuesday by the Des Moines Register, only 45 percent of respondents approve of Reynolds’ actions as governor. That’s the lowest job approval number for the governor the Iowa Poll has recorded since she took office in May 2017.
While Reynolds’ job approval hit a new low, the percentage of poll respondents who said they disapprove of the job she is doing hit a new high. According to the poll of 811 Iowans by Selzer & Co., conducted Sept. 8-11, 50 percent of Iowans disapprove of Reynolds’ performance as governor. That’s an increase of 5 percentage points since the previous Iowa Poll in June.
Reynolds’ job approval numbers among Republicans and independents have not changed since June. Just as in the previous poll, 84 percent of Republican respondents said they approve of the job the governor is doing, as do 42 percent of independents. But the number of Democrats who approve dropped from 12 percent in June to 8 percent now.
“The governor’s job approval rating also shows a gender gap, with 55% of men approving as opposed to 35% of women,” the Register noted. “The poll shows 60% of women and 40% of men disapprove of how she is handling her job,”
Seltzer & Co. also surveyed how people view Reynolds as a person.
In June, 51 percent of people said they had a favorable view of Reynolds as a person. In the new poll, that number dropped to 48 percent. The number of people with an unfavorable opinion of Reynolds as a person increased two percentage points from June, rising to 47 percent.
State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat in statewide office, remains the most popular statewide elected official, according to the poll results. In both the June poll and the current poll, 53 percent of respondents approve of the job Sand is doing.
Support for Sand among Democrats dropped by 2 percentage points since June, and 10 percentage points among Republicans, but rose among independents. In the previous poll, 40 percent of independents approved of the work Sand is doing; that number is now 51 percent. Among Democrats, his job approval rating was 63 percent, and 49 percent of Republicans also approve.
The other statewide official included in the new poll was Attorney General Brenna Bird, whose job approval rating dropped from 42 percent in June to 39 percent now.
According to Selzer & Co., the September Iowa Poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
