Poll: Gavin Newsom Underwater in California

California voters appear to have turned against Gov. Gavin Newsom in the most recent Public Policy Institute of California poll, which has the first-year governor “underwater,” with 44% of likely voters disapproving and 43% approving.

That is a reversal from the positive ratings voters gave Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, for the last several years of his tenure in office — and, the poll notes, is entirely due to rising disapproval over the last nine months.

Trump mocked Newsom as a “do-nothing” governor in statements to the press on Wednesday.

Residents — not just likely voters — identified homelessness as the number one problem facing the state — with more than one in five likely voters in both Los Angeles and San Francisco saying it was the worst problem. Newsom and other state and local officials have struggled to address the issue — as President Donald Trump has made a habit of pointing out recently.

In the 2020 presidential race, the poll found a three-way contest at the top — with some room for change:

Likely voters identifying as registered Democrats or as Democratic-leaning independents support Elizabeth Warren (23%), Joe Biden (22%), and Bernie Sanders (21%) at levels well above Kamala Harris (8%) and Pete Buttigieg (6%). No other candidate is preferred by more than 3 percent, and 9 percent say they don’t know which candidate they prefer. However, among voters with a candidate preference, more than half (53%) would consider supporting another candidate.

The poll surveyed over 1700 adults and over 1000 likely voters, the latter producing a margin of error of 4.2% in the 95% confidence interval.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.