Poll: Romney favorability unchanged since 2012 loss

The public’s view of Mitt Romney has changed little since the 2012 election, with 47 percent viewing him in a favorable light. 

According to a Gallup poll released Monday, another 43 percent of people have an unfavorable view of the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee. 

During the campaign, Romney’s favorable rating never scored above 50 percent. His highest rating came shortly after losing to President Obama in November. At that time 50 percent viewed him as favorable, while 45 percent saw him in an unfavorable light. He lost the popular vote 47 percent to 51 percent to Obama. 

{mosads}Romney has become increasingly visible in the media in the last month as he was quoted extensively about the Winter Olympics — he headed the games in Utah in 2002 — and amid the release of a documentary that showed the personal side of him during the campaign. 

“But despite this exposure, Romney hasn’t enjoyed a bump in favorability,” Gallup wrote in an analysis accompanying the poll. 

A Washington Post poll last November found Romney would has won the presidential election 49 percent to 45 percent if the election were held at that point. That poll came amid sinking poll numbers from President Obama during the botched rollout of the healthcare law. 

Romney has continuously said he will not mount a third run for the presidency after losing the general election in 2012 and failing to capture the GOP nomination in 2008.  

“The answer is no, I’m not running for President in 2016. It’s time for someone else to take that responsibility,” he said recently on CNN.

One year after Secretary of States John Kerry’s presidential election loss in 2004, his favorable rating stood at 42 percent. A year after the 2008 election, Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) favorable rating stood at 54 percent. 

The poll surveyed 1,023 people in the second week of February and has a 4-percent margin of error.