So close, yet so far.
Nearly six in 10 Bay State residents approve of the job that Democratic Gov. Maura Healey is doing after more than 18 months in the top spot.
That’s not too shabby — but it wasn’t enough to put her in the ranks of the nation’s Top 10 most popular governors, according to a new Morning Consult poll out on Wednesday.
In all, 59% of respondents to the poll approved of Healey’s job performance.
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey speak at a May 29 panel on reproductive rights, at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston. (BHAAMATI BORKHETARIA / COMMONWEALTH BEACON)CommonWealth Beacon
On the upside, Healey was more popular than the state’s two Democratic members of the U.S. Senate, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, who had respectively had approval ratings of 54% and 57%.
But Markey still managed to nab the No. 10 spot in the Morning Consult poll.
Twenty-six percent of respondents disapproved of Markey, and 17% were undecided, according to the poll.
Thirty-seven percent disapproved of Warren, who is up for re-election this fall, according to the poll.
Healey’s approval numbers are unchanged from the last Morning Consult poll in April. However, her disapprovals increased slightly, from 28% in April to 30% in the new poll.
Fewer voters, 11%, were undecided about Healey in Wednesday’s poll, compared to April, where 13% were undecided, or did not know enough to form an opinion.
Healey logged a 45% approval rating in a University of New Hampshire poll released last week.
Forty-six percent of the 509 people who responded to UNH’s online survey said they disapproved of Healey’s job performance, and 10% had no opinion.
Healey’s approvals stood at 52% in the UNH canvass in May, with 38% disapproving, and nearly the same number, 11%, still on the fence about the Arlington Democrat.
Three New England governors, Republicans Phil Scott, of Vermont (#1) and Chris Sununu, of New Hampshire (#6), and Democrat Ned Lamont (#9), of Connecticut, cracked the top 10 in the Morning Consult poll, with approval ratings of 81%, 63%, and 61%, respectively.
Scott, who was first elected in 2017, is the nation’s most popular governor for two years running, according to the Morning Consult poll.
Among the ranks of the U.S. Senate, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., (71%), was the most popular member of the upper chamber.
Vermont’s two senators, independent Bernie Sanders (#2) and Democrat Peter Welch (#5), also made it into the ranks of the nation’s top 10 most popular members, according to the poll.
