Wrap-up From Recent Gallup Polls

Gallup has given us a handful of state specific polls over the past week or so. Here is a rundown of what they are showing from Mississippi (and some previous polls and exit polls for comparison):

Mississippi rated most conservative state

A majority, 50.5 percent of Mississippi, identified as political conservatives. This is the highest mark in the nation and the only state to have an outright majority. Idaho was second at 48.5 percent with Alabama ranking third at 48.3 percent.

Conversely, only 13.8 percent of residents identified as liberals, which is the lowest total in the country. This also gave the state a 36.7 percent conservative advantage, which is the highest in the country.

In 2008 exit polling done by CNN, 49 percent of voters identified as conservative with 16 percent describing themselves as liberal.

Obama sports 47 percent approval rating

By far the most shocking numbers we saw was a pretty healthy 47 percent approval rating for Barack Obama over the past year in the state. While I don’t think Obama will get 47 percent in the Magnolia State next year unless he is winning 47 or 48 states, the fact that the numbers throughout the country were all over the place was pretty interesting.

The 47 percent is higher than Obama is showing in states he won in 2008 including Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, Maine, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado, and New Hampshire.

Further, Obama was polling rather low in solid blue states like Oregon (48), Washington (50), New Jersey (51), Vermont (53), Illinois (53), and Connecticut (54).

In 2008, Obama won 43 percent of the vote, which is about the maximum a Democrat should expect to get in a presidential election Mississippi.

Even partisan breakdown

Despite the obvious trend of voting Republican in statewide and federal elections, Gallup found an essentially even breakdown by party affiliation. According to the poll, 42.9 percent of residents identify as Democrats with 43.3 aligning with the GOP.

This was pretty much in line with Gallup’s polls, which found very few states that had a strong Republican lean.

According to 2008 CNN exit polling, 45 percent of voters considered themselves Republicans with 40 percent identifying with the Democratic Party. Of note, 11 percent of self-identified Democrats voted for John McCain with independents siding with McCain 2-1. (For what it’s worth, George W. Bush got a slightly higher 14 percent of Democrats in 2004).