President Obama may enjoy a more than 80 percent approval rating at home in Washington, D.C., but less than half of residents approve of the president in 39 states. In 15 states, his approval rating is less than 40 percent, according to a new Gallup survey.
The eleven states where the president has an approval rating higher than 50 percent are largely concentrated in the Northeast, with the exceptions of California, Hawaii, and Illinois. Meanwhile, states where President Obama has a lower than 50 percent approval rating span the country, including typical Democratic states such as Oregon and Washington. In fact, in most of the states that the president won in the 2012 election he no longer commands the support of the majority.
Obama had an approval rating of less than 30 percent in three states: Utah (27.3 percent), West Virginia (25.1), and Wyoming (22.5). The approval ratings could be an indicator of how Democrats from states where the president is unpopular will run in the upcoming midterms.