GOP governors critical of Trump are the nation’s two most popular governors

Two GOP governors who have a history of being critical of President Trump are the most popular governors in the United States, according to a new poll.

Blue-state Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is currently ranked in first place on the Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday with 69 percent of registered voters in his state of Massachusetts voicing support for him.

And Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R, who also serves in a blue state, is ranked a close second with 68 percent of his state’s registered voters’ support.

Both Republican governors have a history of breaking with the Trump administration.

Last month, Baker canceled the deployment of his state’s National Guard troops to the border in protest of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy that separated families entering the U.S.

{mosads}The Massachusetts governor also captured headlines in April after skipping a major GOP fundraiser in Boston featuring Vice President Pence, a move Massachusetts Republicans saw as an effort to distance himself from the Trump administration ahead of his reelection campaign.

Baker has also been public in the past about not voting for the president in the 2016 election.

Hogan also sought to distance himself from Trump in the wake of his controversial immigration policy in June, recalling a National Guard helicopter and four crew members from New Mexico due to the hundreds of separated migrant families at the southern border prompted by the policy. 

Hogan also criticized Trump’s comments after last year’s deadly protest in Charlottesville, Va., when Trump blamed both sides for the violence, saying he made “a terrible mistake,” according to The Baltimore Sun. 

He also ripped Trump in March after the president responded to school shootings with a call to give guns to teachers, saying: “I don’t think we should be handing out guns to drama teachers and biology teachers.”