A new statewide poll finds President Trump’s favorable rating in Louisiana is 48%, but Governor Jeff Landry’s is only 39%. JMC Analytics and Polling pollster John Couvillon says Landry had an aggressive legislative agenda during his first year in office and that might have turned off a few voters.
“The upside is, you can get things that your party’s base wants to accomplish. The downside is, when you’re perhaps too frightened and pushing your agenda, you’re basically breaking things, and that does turn off voters,” Couvillon explained.
In Landry’s first year in office, he got lawmakers to approve a tough-on-crime legislative package, tax reform, displaying the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom, and changing federal elections to a party primary election system.
Couvillon believes Landry is having a hard time connecting with voters.
“What the governor needs to do is make himself more accessible. In other words, more person-to-person contact than just, say, social media posts,” Couvillon said.
The poll also asked voters if they thought the state is heading in the right direction. Only 26% said it is heading in the right direction, 54% say it’s heading in the wrong direction, and 20% did not have an opinion. Couvillon says the poll of 600 likely voters was conducted last week and the federal government shutdown probably played a role in the responses.
“It’s kind of a combination of what people are feeling with their pocketbooks and what they’re seeing and observing nationally,” Couvillon said.
A governor’s office consultant pointed out that the group that paid for the poll, Unite America, supports groups with a strong, liberal bias.