It’s no secret that Rep. Matt Gaetz is far from the most popular man in Congress, but a new poll shows that Floridians aren’t super fond of him either.
Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is rumored to be eyeing a run for governor in 2026, has the approval of just 21% of Sunshine State voters while 57% disapprove, per a Florida Atlantic University Mainstreet PolCom Lab survey.
Of the remainder, 8% of voters had a neutral opinion of him and 14% said they weren’t sure how they felt.
The hard-right rep was thrust into the national spotlight last month after he successfully engineered the removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House speaker.
Gaetz and seven other Republicans banded together with a solid bloc of 208 Democrats to oust McCarthy, who became the first House speaker to be removed by a vote of his colleagues.
The Floridian claims the gambit was motivated by frustration over a stopgap measure taken up by McCarthy in late September to avert a partial government shutdown, as well as other alleged broken promises.
McCarthy claims the revolt was part of a personal vendetta and alleged that Gaetz was livid that McCarthy refused to interfere in an ethics probe, something the Florida Republican denies.
The poll sampled 946 voters between Oct. 27-Nov. 11 with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.2 percentage points.
Since 2017, Gaetz has had a lock on the seat representing Florida’s 1st Congressional District, winning re-election by 35 percentage points last year.
Outside Geatz’s Panhandle perch, sentiment toward him is much less favorable — even among GOP voters.
Some 36.6% of Republicans approve of Gaetz statewide, compared to 36.3% who disapprove.
When Republicans were asked about the removal of McCarthy as speaker, just 42% approved, 35% opposed and the remainder said they didn’t know.
Among Democrats, 82.9% disapprove of Gaetz, while among independents, 53.8% disapprove while 21.1% approve of his job performance, per the poll.
Despite reports and speculation that Gaetz has his eye on the governor’s mansion, he has denied or downplayed a potential run.
Some of his ardent critics in Congress, such as McCarthy himself, have called for him to be punished for dethroning the former speaker.