President Barack Obama’s approval ratings fell below 50 percent in 37 states with his lowest popularity recorded in Utah with 26 percent, according to a new Gallup poll.
“The 50 percent approval mark is significant because post-WWII incumbent presidents who have been above 50 percent job approval on Election Day were easily re-elected,” said the poll released Wednesday. “Presidents with approval ratings below 50 percent have more uncertain re-election prospects.”
For example, the poll lists some of the rarities including former Presidents Harry Truman and George W. Bush as two presidents who won with low ratings, and Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush as presidents who lost with the low ratings.
The telephone survey was conducted from January to June and included 90,000 adults with a margin of error for individual states of three to eight percent.
Obama was most popular in the District of Columbia with an 83 percent approval rating, followed by Hawaii with 63 percent, Rhode Island with 58 percent, Vermont with 56 percent, and New York, Massachusetts and Maryland with 55 percent.
Utah Democratic Chairman Jim Dabakis told the Salt Lake Tribune that he believes the president’s dismal approval rating in his state can be attributed almost exclusively to the Romney factor.
“He’s part of the tribe for many Utahans,” Dabakis said.
But that doesn’t explain Obama’s low ratings in Wyoming with 28 percent, Alaska with 29 percent and West Virginia and Idaho with 31 percent.
There were 21 states in which the president’s approval rating fell between 40 and 50 percent, including some of the largest swing states of Florida (46 percent), Pennsylvania (46 percent) and Ohio (44 percent).
