President Donald Trump’s approval rating is plummeting but Wyoming remains his biggest fan, according to a poll The Economist released last week, and another Newsweek released Thursday.
The Economist poll shows Wyoming topping other states with 14% net approval. Newsweek has the Cowboy State at 22 points’ net approval – both signifying more favor toward the president than any other state.
The Economist’s poll showed only three states in favor. Newsweek’s showed nine.
Jim King, former University of Wyoming political professor, was unsurprised.
“Trump’s policies have always been popular in Wyoming,” said King, “It’s an overwhelmingly Republican state.”
In The Economist’s poll, Wyoming ranked the highest among three states where Trump still has a positive net approval rating. The other two are Idaho and West Virginia.
“You don’t get three much more conservative states than those,” said King.
Wyoming and West Virginia are both coal-producing states as well. Trump has pushed for a California-based port for Wyoming coal, and favors data center production, which the state’s coal industry supports.
“Obviously his approval ratings aren’t what they were in 2018,” said King.
The Economist’s poll shows Trump at -26 points altogether as of last Tuesday, compared with -9 points on Aug. 18, 2018, a year and a half into his first term.
President Joe Biden fared worse than Trump I but better than Trump II at this stage in his lone term, at -12.
The line graph The Economist embedded shows Trump’s approval declining steadily throughout his second term, in contrast to a late-2017 dip and 2018 resurgence and plateau in his first.
Both polls were taken before the president evoked resounding criticism from Wyoming ranchers Friday when he called once again for imported beef, by saying he would lift ground beef tariffs on unspecified countries. The announcement came as ground beef averaged $6.88 a pound.
But Wyoming ranchers warned that giving government-made advantages to foreign beef sources could starve off more U.S. ranches in the long term, driving up prices again as supply dwindles. They urged certain deregulatory moves instead.
King said there’s another narrative where people essentially hold onto their optimism.
“You know, people see short-term losses, with the expectation of long-term gains,” he said. “This has been Trump country for years, and not enough has changed to really shake that.”
Guns, Polls And Eric Barlow
The Economist’s issue targets might have also driven the poll’s outcome. The poll took approval ratings for Trump’s handling of inflation, foreign policy, jobs and the economy, immigration, and crime.
Wyoming recently opposed the Trump administration in court over the National Firearms Act.
The Trump administration defended the landmark gun-control law. Upon urging by Wyoming, other states, groups, and people, a Texas-based federal judge called major parts of the law unconstitutional earlier this month.
Another harbinger of lukewarm, or less, regard for Trump in Wyoming unfolded last Tuesday when Sen. Eric Barlow won the Republican nomination for governor, over Trump-endorsed Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder; and over Wyoming Republican Party-endorsed former Marine Corps Col. Brent Bien.
Barlow won every county in Wyoming, including Platte, where he had two more votes than Bien.
In The Mid-Terms
King said Trump’s low approval rating could hurt Republican congressional candidates going into November’s mid-term elections. But not as much as they might have 40 or 50 years ago.
The nation has fewer competitive congressional districts. More have galvanized under one party or the other, he said.
“I don’t think that same opportunity exists,” he said. “Both sides, depending on the state, have been quite successful in insulating incumbents in particular … I don’t think you’re going to get the big swings.”
Factors driving Trump’s plummeting approval rating nationally could include the spiked gasoline prices, the still-high inflation, and “lot of negative publicity concerning immigration enforcement.”
To generate “this type of drop,” usually requires one negatively perceived action “on top of another, on top of another,” King added.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
