PROVIDENCE – The polls aren’t showing much momentum for Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s reelection campaign.
A new University of New Hampshire Ocean State Poll found that among 711 residents polled via text or online, 29% of likely Democratic primary voters say they would vote for former CVS Health Corp. executive Helena Foulkes, 13% would vote for House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, 11% would vote for McKee, 6% would write in someone else and 42% are undecided.
Also, McKee remains unpopular, according to the UNH poll. Only 21% of residents approve his handling of the job, while 72% disapprove. Along party lines, 36% of Democrats polled approved of McKee’s performance while 11% of independents and 4% of Republicans approved.
The poll was conducted between Nov. 13-17 and has a 3.7% margin of error.
If Foulkes were not in the race, 29% of likely Democratic voters say they would vote for Shekarchi, only 15% would vote for McKee and 50% would be undecided. If McKee were not in the race, 32% of Democratic voters would vote for Foulkes and 17% would vote for Shekarchi.
In a University of Rhode Island poll released Sept. 15, McKee led the results with 18.5% of the vote, Foulkes was third with 14.3% and House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi earned 7.3%. Shekarchi has not announced if he is running for governor.
R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, who was widely been viewed as a potential gubernatorial candidate, earned 15% of the vote in a hypothetical race among potential gubernatorial candidates in that URI poll. However, he announced on Nov. 3 he would not run for governor.
Gregory D. Stevens, who owns Pat’s Italian Restaurants in Coventry, Cumberland and Johnston
, joined the Democratic field on Nov. 13. Businessman and Rhode Island native Robert J. Raimondo entered the race on the Republican side on Nov. 20.
On Oct. 15, McKee received the lowest approval rating of any U.S. governor in the latest quarterly survey by Morning Consult, which polled more than 250,000 registered voters nationwide between July and September. That poll the poll found that 40% of Rhode Island voters viewed McKee favorably, while his disapproval rate stood at 44% – marking his lowest approval and highest disapproval ratings from Morning Consult since he took office in 2021.
His disapproval rate was the third lowest among governors, according to the Morning Consult poll, after Iowa’s Kim Reynolds at 53% and Maine’s Janet Mills at 45%.
The full Ocean State Poll can be found here.
