Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin attracts an enviable 82 percent approval rating among Republicans who are likely to vote in primary elections, according to a new survey from
Rasmussen Reports. In a week in which Palin and fellow former Govs. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee traded places near the top in surveys crystal-balling the 2012 election, Rasmussen now finds that the three also are the best-liked of the 14 top party players among GOP primary voters.
Palin’s popularity quotient includes 50 percent who have a very favorable opinion of her, while just 17 percent view her unfavorably, including 8 percent very unfavorably, according to the survey findings.
Tied at 79 per cent favorability are former Massachusetts Gov. Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee. And 17 percent hold unfavorable opinions of the two men, both of whom ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.
For Huckabee, that includes very favorables of 43 percent, while 37 percent have a very favorable impression of Romney. Their very unfavorables are in low single-digits.
It’s a dead heat between Romney, Huckabee and Palin when likely primary voters are asked whom they would vote for if the primary took place today.
By contrast, in July 2009, Palin was second only to Romney as the presidential candidate Republican voters said they’d vote for in 2012 state primaries, but, along with Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, she also was one of two candidates they least hoped would win the party’s nomination.