Jack Markell remains one of the more popular governors, according to a poll from MorningConsult.
Sixty-one percent approved of Markell’s performance. The political website surveyed 75,000 people in coming up with the rankings.
Markell’s approval rating was on the upper end of the spectrum, although he did not rank as high as Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland. Hogan has a 69 percent approval rating early into his first term.
By contrast, University of Delaware graduate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, also in his second term, has a 40 percent approval rating.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has a 50 percent ranking early in his first term. Wolf, a Democrat, has struggled with a budget impasse with Republicans who control the Legislature.
The most popular governor was Massachusetts,’ Charlie Baker, at 74 percent. Like Hogan, Baker, a Republican, is in the first two years of his first term.
The least poplar Gov. is Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, at 26 percent. Brownback has struggled with budget deficits that came with an ambitious tax cut plan that aimed to jump-start the state’s economy.
Markell ranks in the upper tier, despite being in the final years of his second term. Ratings of governors tend to go down as their terms end.
The strong performance also shows his administration has weathered budget challenges and a loan package to Fisker that went sour when the automaker went into bankruptcy proceedings.
Republican lawmakers have continued to hammer away at Democrats in areas such as clean air policies, spending and lack of a right to work law. Democrats control the General Assembly as well as the governor’s office in Delaware, a heavily Democratic state.
The Markell administration says the state has kept spending growth to a few percentage points each year, while operating with slightly fewer employees.
A total of 568 Delaware voters were polled in calculating Markell’s popularity.
