Marco Rubio Poll: More View Him Unfavorably Than Favorably

Sure, he might have raised a lot of money selling those water bottles, but it appears Marco Rubio's response to the State of the Union didn't do him any favors in the favorability department.The GOP golden boy is accustomed to sterling poll results, but a new Pew poll shows that...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

February 21, 2013

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Sure, he might have raised a lot of money selling those water bottles, but it appears Marco Rubio's response to the State of the Union didn't do him any favors in the favorability department.

The GOP golden boy is accustomed to sterling poll results, but a new Pew poll shows that more Americans view him unfavorably than favorably.

In the first poll of Rubio's image taken since Water Bottle-gate, 29 percent of Americans view him unfavorably, 26 percent view him favorably, and 46 percent say they don't know enough about him to offer an opinion. That's just a three-point difference, and most Americans are reserving judgement. These aren't career-killing, Rick Scott-like numbers, but they're not the kind Rubio is used to.

Quinnipiac, a different polling firm, offered national numbers from before the SOTU on February 8. In it, 27 percent viewed Rubio favorably, and 19 percent viewed him unfavorably. The rest didn't have an opinion.

The Pew poll isn't all bad news for Rubio, though:

Among all Republicans (and Republican leaners) who agree with the Tea Party, fully 70% view Rubio favorably compared with just 7% who view him unfavorably. Among Republicans and leaners who do not agree with the Tea Party, 31% view Rubio favorably and 25% view him unfavorably.

At least he's popular among Tea Partiers! Of course, if Republican voters decide they want to go in a different direction than Tea Party ideology in 2016, Rubio could be in trouble if he ran for president.

We'll also be interested to see the first poll since the SOTU of Rubio's approval ratings in Florida.

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