The American Conservatives founder and executive director Tim Phillips says the GOP gubernatorial candidate in a state where Republicans won 51% of the vote last year is the least unpopular governor in the country.
“The governor’s job, if you will, is to be the governor for the people of Florida.
That’s it,” Phillips said in an interview with The American Progressive.
“And it’s going to be his job to lead that state.”
Phillips is a conservative activist who has worked for years to get out the vote in Florida, which President Donald Trump won by nearly a two-to-one margin in the 2016 presidential election.
His most recent effort, he said, was a statewide initiative that asked voters to approve a $50-per-gallon tax on gasoline.
Phillips, who served as the Florida Republican Party chairman until June, has been the most popular Republican governor in Florida for years.
He won his first term in 2018 with a 57% approval rating, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University survey released last year.
That is more than double the approval rating for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) and more than the approval ratings for Florida Gov.
Rick Scott (R).
Florida’s approval rating also ranks among the lowest in the nation.
The median approval rating in Florida is 39%, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
Phillipp said he’s not surprised that so many Republicans are choosing to support Trump in 2018.
“When I started, the Republican Party had been in crisis for years,” Phillips told The American Progress.
“People are frustrated.
They don’t trust the government anymore, and they don’t want the political system to fix their problems.
So people are choosing Donald Trump.
And so I think that’s going in that direction.”
Phillipp, a former Republican congressional candidate in the state, said he would vote for Trump in November if the race were still on the ballot.
“I’m not sure I’d go to the polls and vote for the Democrat,” Phillips, 54, said.
“But if it were, I would probably vote for him.”
Trump, meanwhile, said Monday he is backing Florida GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Scott.
The Florida governor’s race is one of several races that could affect the party’s future in the Sunshine State.
Florida’s governor race will decide who will run for U.N. secretary general and other top jobs in the U