MORE NUMBERS …
We’re taking this week’s S.C. Democratic Party-commissioned poll – the one that shows GOP nominee Donald Trump in a dogfight with Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Palmetto State -with an ocean of salt.
Frankly, we just don’t buy it …
Nonetheless, the survey offers the first set of South Carolina-specific political polling data we’ve seen in awhile – so it’s probably worth mentioning (and comparing with future data).
According to the survey – conducted by Raleigh, N.C.-based Public Policy Polling (PPP) – S.C. governor Nikki Haley currently has a 48 percent approval rating, whereas 39 percent of South Carolinians disapprove of her performance.
Last November, PPP had Haley’s approval rating at 56 percent, with only 28 percent of voters disapproving.
Still, Haley’s numbers are positively stratospheric compared to those of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham – whose approval rating is at an abysmal 30 percent (compared to 54 percent of voters who disapprove of the job he is doing in Washington, D.C.).
“Graham pulls off the trifecta of being unpopular with voters across party lines,” PPP’s pollsters noted, citing Graham’s anemic approval ratings among “Republicans” (35 percent), independents (29 percent) and Democrats (27 percent).
Conversely, 54 percent of GOP voters, fifty percent of independents and 57 percent of Democrats disapprove of Graham.
Again … this is data from a Democratic-leaning firm, which conducted the poll for the S.C. Democratic Party. So take these numbers for what they are worth …
In fact, it will be very interesting to compare them to the next round of statewide surveys … which we look forward to doing just as soon as those numbers come out.