Obama Sustains Early Support in Minnesota; Falters in Wisconsin and Iowa

SurveyUSA’s latest round of approval ratings for President Barack Obama have been released for a dozen states across the country, in polling conducted March 20-22 of 600 adults in each state.

Although the President has had a consistently higher job performance rating during the first three months of his tenure in states such as New York, Massachusetts, California, and Washington, in no state have Obama’s early supporters been as faithful as those in the State of Minnesota.

From January (64 percent) to March (61 percent), Obama has only lost 4.7 percent of his support in the Gopher State, the lowest of the 12 states polled each month by SurveyUSA. Obama received an approval rating of 62 percent in February in Minnesota.

By contrast, Obama has lost support among Wisconsinites at more than 5 times this rate. Falling at a 24.3 percent clip since his inauguration, the President has seen his approval rating drop from 70 percent in January to 53 percent in March in the Badger State – the largest dip across the 12 states. Obama's approval rating fell 11.7 percent since February (60 percent).

Obama is also seeing a larger than average erosion of early supporters in Iowa, where 57 percent now approve of the job he is doing as president, down 16.2 percent from January (68 percent) – the third largest drop in support among the 12 states polled by SurveyUSA. The President's job approval rating fell 9.5 percent since February in the Hawkeye State (63 percent).

Erosion of Approval for Barack Obama’s Performance as President

Rank	State	January	March	% Change
1	Minnesota	64	61	-4.7
2	New York	78	72	-7.7
3	Kentucky	62	56	-9.7
4	Washington	69	62	-10.1
5	Virginia	62	55	-11.3
6	Kansas	62	55	-11.3
7	Missouri	65	57	-12.3
8	Massachusetts	78	68	-12.8
9	California	77	67	-13.0
10	Iowa	68	57	-16.2
11	Alabama	60	47	-21.7
12	Wisconsin	70	53	-24.3
	Average	68.0	59.2	-12.9

Note: As of post time, SurveyUSA had not yet released numbers for two states polled in its January and February rounds – New Mexico and Oregon.

Interestingly, Obama’s support is holding much stronger in states like Kentucky (56 percent, 9.7 percent drop), and Kansas (55 percent, 11.3 percent drop) – states in which Obama received only 41 and 42 percent of the presidential vote respectively.

Obama currently has an approval rating that is 15 points higher in Kentucky than the vote he received for president in that state. In Kansas the President is currently +13. Minnesota ranks in the middle of the pack with the President’s approval rating (61 percent) resting 7 points higher than his vote tally on Election Day (54 percent).

Only the State of Wisconsin finds Obama with a lower approval rating today (53 percent) than his statewide vote last November (56 percent) among these dozen states.

Obama Presidential Vote Share vs. March Approval Ratings

Rank	State	Vote	Approval	Difference
1	Kentucky	41	56	15
2	Kansas	42	55	13
3	New York	63	72	9
4	Alabama	39	47	8
5	Missouri	49	57	8
6	Minnesota	54	61	7
7	Massachusetts	62	68	6
8	California	61	67	6
9	Washington	57	62	5
10	Iowa	54	57	3
11	Virginia	53	55	2
12	Wisconsin	56	53	-3

Note: As of post time, SurveyUSA had not yet released numbers for two states polled in its January and February rounds – New Mexico and Oregon.

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